


The Awakening

by Junliet



Series: The Awakening [2]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Developing Relationship, Fantasy, Kidnapping, M/M, Magic, Temporary Amnesia, magical au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:13:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23758186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Junliet/pseuds/Junliet
Summary: Flashes of blue and green light clashed against each other, exploding into the air in a flurry of sparks from the magic energy. Soft but firm hands pulled at his shoulders, pulling him out of the way of a bolt of the green magic before he was encased in a spherical shield of blue magic and a pair of near black eyes fixed on his, illuminated only by the blue light."How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," a voice, soft and gentle and oh so familiar whispered. One of those soft hands came to rest on his forehead and his sight grew fuzzier and fuzzier. "I will never forget you."All he could see before his vision faded completely was that pair of near black eyes lit with the pale blue light from the magic.
Relationships: Javier Fernández/Yuzuru Hanyu
Series: The Awakening [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686712
Comments: 30
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [emilia_kaisa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emilia_kaisa/gifts).



> Hi everyone. People wanted me to continue one of my little things for the daily prompts (which have been put on hold for reasons, sorry) and so here is the first chapter of it. It's dedicated to one of the best people ever and I hope you like it! I hope you all enjoy it xx

_Flashes of blue and green light clashed against each other, exploding into the air in a flurry of sparks from the magic energy. Soft but firm hands pulled at his shoulders, pulling him out of the way of a bolt of the green magic before he was encased in a spherical shield of blue magic and a pair of near black eyes fixed on his, illuminated only by the blue light._

_"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," a voice, soft and gentle and oh so familiar whispered. One of those soft hands came to rest on his forehead and his sight grew fuzzier and fuzzier. "I will never forget you."_

_All he could see before his vision faded completely was that pair of near black eyes lit with the pale blue light from the magic._

With a groan, the figure in their bed pulled the homemade blanket that kept them warm over their head and curled up tighter. As much as he shifted, he couldn't get comfortable and eventually sat up to stretch his arms above his curls. Fluffing them up at the back, he blinked as his eyes adjusted to the sliver of sunlight that broke through the crack in his curtains and fell onto his face. He pushed himself up and changed out of his sleep clothes into a loose off-white shirt and dark trousers before he opened up his curtains. His room overlooked a secluded garden area where a pair of goats were happily grazing on the grass and laundry was hanging on the line outside.

"Morning," a young lady with her long dark hair tied in a low ponytail behind her back looked up from where she'd been grinding leaves in water and a mortar and pestle, "you alright Javi? You look tired."

"I had that weird dream again," he mumbled as he made himself a hot drink using the water boiling over their fireplace before he settled into the seat opposite to her. He reached across the table for his own mortar and pestle before he started grinding up some of the leaves too. "I don't understand it."

"What was it again? Blue and green light and a pair of eyes?"

"Yeah," Javier nodded and chewed his lip as he kept his eyes down on his work, "yeah. And talking, but I can't really remember what they said. Do you think maybe it's a premonition Laura?"

Laura chewed her lip and set the leaves down as she studied his face. Her eyes were soft but focused, like they always were when she was checking over a patient.

"I doubt it's a premonition Javi, but you never told me about what happened when you went to study. Maybe--"

"Again, you mention me leaving to study? I never left to study Laura. I stayed here and just travelled to the village over." Javier half laughed as he reached for one of the thick leather-bound books off the shelf behind him. He flipped it open to a page full of handwritten notes and hand drawn diagrams before he added the crushed-up leaves to the tea pot full of boiling water to infuse into it. "I should be off soon."

Laura looked torn, like she wanted to argue with him, but she nodded and added her own crushed leaves to the pot. Javier took a different book from the shelf and tucked it under his arm along with a piece of the bread Laura had made overnight before he left their house and went out into the street.

There town was nestled in the forest with a river running through the centre and mountains emerging from the tops of the trees nearby, leading to the most picturesque and beautiful scenes as Javier walked along the main cobbled street away from his home over the wooden bridge. Javier broke off some of the bread and threw it to the ducks that waddled up to him, used to him and his daily offerings of bread. Their quiet quacking and cute waddling, particularly that of the ducklings, pulled a smile onto Javier's face and he continued on to the town square. At the centre was a sundial that stood before the town hall and, next to the hall, was the collection of little buildings that acted almost like the social space when the weather was poor. Along the road was the village pub, the bakery, the tailor's, the stone masons, the black smiths, the carpenter, and the armorer. Down at Javier's end of the town was the apothecary and makeshift hospital, run by him and his sister as well as the small library that was practically disused and run by Lyndon: the oldest member of the village who wasn't necessarily the wisest. He hid himself away in the library and kept his nose buried in books most of his life. Every time Javier or Laura had been to Lyndon to borrow a book about apothecary, he had always been polite to them, but other members of the area weren't as polite.

"Afternoon everyone," Javier smiled to the group of children settled around the tables in one of the social spaces, "ready to learn how to control your powers?"

The children all nodded enthusiastically and Javier settled in the spare seat before he raised a hand, holding it palm up. In the palm of his hand grew a sphere of yellow light. The children all watched him, utterly transfixed, as Javier turned the sphere into a glowing yellow cat shape. He closed his fist and smiled to the children before he cleared his throat and spoke up.

"So, first thing to do is really really focus in your mind. Each of you has a different kind and different coloured magic energy in you. You will be able to do different things with it, so please don't get disheartened if your friend can do something but you can't. Each of your abilities is unique, different, and valuable. Some look flashier, like the ability to manipulate fire, but less flashy ones are more useful at times. You may not be as impressed with the ability to heal, like my sister and I have, but it is incredibly useful in day to day life. If you can help others with your abilities, that is the most beautiful thing."

The children all nodded to him and Javier half smiled to all their attentive faces. He clapped his hands together and smiled.

"Right, so, everyone close your eyes and focus really really hard on that source of power that comes from your heart. Focus really really hard on it. If you're going to draw from it, it will take time to start with and eventually you'll be able to do it almost without thinking. For now, just try imagining your power flowing from your heart through your veins to your hands and try to produce a little sphere of power in your hands. I'll tap you on the shoulder if you've done it successfully so that you don't have to open your eyes and you can just keep concentrating on the power."

After working hard for a few hours, Javier rewarded each of the children with a freshly baked pastry from the bakery and let them all run off. The sun was beginning its descent now and the village was bathed in the beautiful orange light of the evening. Javier took his time as he made his way back through the village towards the apothecary and his home. The ducks waddled up to him but soon lost interest when they realised that he no longer had any food for them. He stopped on the bridge for a while and looked out at the side of the river that cut through the mountains and disappeared in the distance. The river on the other side of the bridge cut through the forest, vanishing into the trees. The setting sun was half behind the mountains now and the long shadows were cast on the water and the rays of light just caught in Javier's curls, making them glow golden rather than the brown it looked like normally. His doe like brown eyes sparkled as he watched a V of geese fly over the town, honking quietly as they flew off towards the mountains. He sighed deeply before he tore his eyes away and carried on towards his home. After finishing making several of their healing balms and potions, Javier and Laura ate a light dinner together in silence before both headed off to their own rooms. Javier sat on his bed for a while, looking out of his window and up at the stars for a moment. The blackness of the night sky seemed to taunt him, taunt him just like that pair of near black eyes that were so familiar but he just couldn't place them. Shaking his head, he closed his curtains and forced himself to go to sleep.

An almighty crash echoed through the village and Javier sat bolt upright. A loud commotion outside his house peaked Javier's interest and he stumbled out in his sleep clothes, holding up his magic in the shape of a yellow cat to light his way.

Half of the town it seemed had gathered outside of Javier and Laura's home to come down upon a cloaked figure and their horse. The figure had their hand out and a purple glowing snake poised before them, facing the crowd of townspeople. Javier approached with curiosity and, to his utter shock, the cloaked stranger turned on him and pointed their hand at him.

"You!"

The whole town turned to face him and Javier couldn't help but blush bright red. Laura stepped up to his side, for his defence, and the stranger lowered their guard as the purple magic creating the snake dimmed and was drawn back into them.

"You're the one who can help. You're the one who he knows. You're the one who can find him."

Javier blinked in confusion and the townspeople threw him dirty looks. The stranger didn't even lower their hood when they let out a screech and a gasp. Someone from the village, probably one of the masons, had fired an arrow at the stranger and pierced them in the thigh. Medical side kicking in, Javier and Laura ran to support the stranger and half carried them into their home before Javier darted out to grab the horse.

"We grant them sanctuary in our home," Javier announced to the stony face of the townspeople, "and we will face the repercussions of this. For now, please grant us the space and time to heal his wounds before you make a judgement about this situation."

"You will tell us if anything arises?" the town leader asked, tilting his head at Javier. The healer nodded and the town leader dismissed everyone until only Lyndon remained. He held out a book to Javier and patted his hand before he retreated back to the library.

The book was nothing special; it was a thick, black, leather bound book with golden thread on it and yellowing pages. The corners were frayed and worn and a thin layer of dust from years, possible even decades, of sitting on a shelf covering where neither Javier not Lyndon had touched. Javier half laughed to himself before he tucked the book under his arm and retreated into the house.

Laura had got the cloak and shirt off the stranger, and had him lying down across one of the tables in their makeshift hospital. Javier all but threw down the book before he rushed over to help Laura. The head of the arrow had been designed with barbs on it to cause extra damage to the victim: perfect for a battle but less good for a healer trying to treat the injuries from it. Laura grimaced and wiped her hands clean before she nodded to herself and glanced at Javier.

"It's not lodged into the bone so we can cut it out. It'll be painful, for sure, and his recovery time will be hell, but we can keep the infection out and it's probably his best chance at survival."

"Can't push it through?" Javier asked and Laura shook her head.

"It's this or let his body digest that arrow head."

"Do what you have to do," the pair turned to look at their patient who had just spoken up. He was lying back with his soft dark brown curls spilling around him and a light sheen of sweat coated his forehead and the exposed skin of his torso and legs. "I don't care about the pain. Just please get it out so that I can start to recover and get back to what I was sent here to do."

Laura shrugged and picked up her surgical knife before she made the careful incisions to the sound of shrieks of pain from their patient. She and Javier extracted the arrow and the barbed arrowhead before they applied some of their antibacterial salve produced from the essence of the sphagnum moss. Javier held the skin and muscle for Laura so that she could close it up and they applied a numbing salve as well as another antibacterial salve and bandaged the stranger's thigh up. Javier scooped him a bowl of their stew that was still heating over the fireplace and Laura helped him to sit upright.

"Why are you in our village?" Laura asked as she added some extra herbs to the bowl before she passed it to the stranger. "And why did you talk about Javi like that?"

The stranger met Javier's eyes dead on as he ate the stew, chewing slowly. His cheekbones were sharp and defined, eyes much darker and narrower, and he had an air about him that no one in the village had. Javier placed a gentle hand on the stranger's thigh and it glowed light yellow for a moment.

"Just to speed the healing process," Javier mumbled as the stranger kept giving him a sharp look.

"I am in the village because we need something. Or someone. We have lost them, well, no. They have a habit of vanishing into thin air at time when they want to not be found. But it's been years now since we last saw them. Not even their family has seen them. Not even their sister has seen them. They left behind no clues except for one. We know that he went to study in the frozen north, and--"

Laura burst out laughing, cutting the stranger off. "And you really think that Javier would have met him in the frozen north? He went to study, yes, but it was in a village in the forest just along from us. He's never been that far north before. I'm sorry but you've got the wrong person here."

"You are Javier Fernandez are you not?" the stranger fixed onto Javier's eyes again with his own. "You are the son of Antonio and Enriqueta? You are the younger of the two siblings?"

"Alright, you asked someone in the village about him. Doesn't prove he is the one you need to seek." Laura cut in.

The stranger gestured to his saddle bag that Javier had brought in for him and Javier reached into the side pocket as the stranger gestured. His fingertips brushed against something and he withdrew an envelope with a wax seal on it. The envelope had been opened. On the front, written in a language Javier couldn't understand, was something that seemed almost enchanting and beautiful. He passed it to the stranger who took the letter out of it and unfolded it.

"To whom it may concern. If I were to go missing and never come home in three months, something will have gone wrong with my studies. If nothing is done, I fear I may never come home and the world as we know it could be at stake. If I am not home and you cannot find me in any of my normal places, I beg of you this:

Find Javier Fernandez. I would know him as soon as I saw him but obviously you cannot. He is a little taller than me, has soft golden-brown curls, and eyes like that of a doe. His magic is yellow and soothing. He can heal and his magic will take the form of a cat if he allows it to act freely. He smells of cinnamon and sandalwood, and he has a tiny crescent shaped scar on his palm from where he slipped cutting up herbs to produced medical ointments." the stranger lowered the letter and met Javier's eyes sharply, "Shall I go on? Or are you convinced that I have the right person?"

"You have the right person," Javier whispered more to himself than the stranger in his disbelief, "but I don't understand. If they don't live in the town then who would they be? I haven't met anyone else."

"This is getting ridiculous," Laura shook her head as she pushed the chair back and stood up. "You're welcome to stay with us Mr.... uh..."

"I'm Keiji Tanaka."

"Mr Tanaka as long as you want. But you will not go saying things to my little brother. You will not try and scare him or guilt him into going with you on a crazy mission of some kind, alright?"

Keiji nodded to Laura and she left the makeshift hospital to go back to her bed. Javier, however, couldn't get the words and ideas out of his head. He poured a mug of tea infused with herbs to numb the pain and help the other sleep, and handed it to Keiji before he sat in the seat next to the table he was still sitting on.

"What colour magic do they have?" Javier whispered, hardly daring to listen to the answer for fear that it was really what he thought it was.

"Blue. Pale blue."

"And their eyes?" Javier mumbled as a lump rose in his throat. There were only so many colours that magic could be after all, and there would have been millions of people with blue magic. Keiji just half smiled and yawned as he finished off the tea.

"Brown," Javier relaxed a little at Keiji's answer, "if you don't mind, do you have somewhere slightly more comfortable that I can sleep? This table is a bit... Well."

"Of course, of course," Javier helped him up and supported him as he took him to one of the empty rooms that they had for anyone they needed to keep an eye on. They for sure needed to keep an eye on Keiji to be able to change his dressings and make sure that an infection didn't set into the wound. Javi lingered in the doorway before he paused, looking back at where Keiji was tucked into the bed and lying back against the plush pillows. "What... who wants my help? Or who needs my help?"

Keiji blinked at him before he gave half a smile again. "Why so curious now Javier?"

"Because I--..." Javier shook his head and gave him a weak smile, "Actually, it doesn't matter. Sleep well Mr Tanaka. If you need anything just ring the bell and either Laura or I will be here to help you."

"Thank you," Keiji nodded and Javier closed the door behind him.

Javier leaned against the wall beside the door for a second before he went back towards his bed, shaking his head. They couldn't be linked. They just couldn't be. Could they? Javier settled himself into his bed and fell asleep almost immediately from exhaustion.

_Flashes of blue and green light clashed against each other, exploding into the air in a flurry of sparks from the magic energy. Soft but firm hands pulled at his shoulders, pulling him out of the way of a bolt of the green magic before he was encased in a spherical shield of blue magic and a pair of near black eyes fixed on his, illuminated only by the blue light._

_"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," a voice, soft and gentle and oh so familiar whispered. One of those soft hands came to rest on his forehead and his sight grew less sharp. "I will never forget you."_

_There, once again, was the pair of near black eyes that remained sharp and lit only by the blue light from the magic as his vision faded out._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Where are you from Keiji?" Laura asked him in the morning as she set about putting their breakfast together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, here is the second chapter of this story. I've finally (sort of) worked out an upload schedule I will try to stick to so that each story gets updated once a week. I might end up dropping it and if I do I can only apologise. This chapter gets the plot going a little bit more and I hope you all like it x

"Where are you from Keiji?" Laura asked him in the morning as she set about putting their breakfast together.

Javier half danced around her as he got their medical supplies and unwrapped the bandage around Keiji's thigh. He chewed his lip as he chose one of the lotions from on their shelf and applied a generous amount. Keiji hissed, wincing in pain, and Javier gave him an apologetic smile as Laura pushed a cup of tea with some painkillers in it into Keiji's hands. Javier changed the dressing and wrapped his leg up with a fresh bandage.

"I'm from a land far to the east of here," Keiji said idly as he sipped at the tea, "thank you for the tea Laura. I appreciate it. And thank you for changing my dressing Javier. How is it?"

"No infection," Javier settled down in the seat next to Keiji's and picked up his own mug of tea, "which is good. You need to eat though." He pushed some of the bread across the table to Keiji along with some cheese. "Strength up and everything."

Keiji smiled, eyes light and curious as they studied Javier's face again. They traced over every line from his smiles, the bags under his eyes from the poor sleep plagued by the dreams he'd been having, the callouses on his hands from working with the physical medicines as well as the magical ones, and the pale-yellow glow that came from his magic. Javier busied himself with cleaning up some of their kitchen before he paused, looking over at Keiji.

"So, you journeyed all the way from a town in the east to come to us? Why?"

Keiji looked over the top of his mug to meet Javier's eyes before he smiled as he took a sip.

"I told you. I came here to find you. I was told to and you're the only one who can--"

"I heard you," Javier washed up his and Laura's things as well as Keiji's plate, "But you never explained why--"

A sharp knocking on their front door cut Javier off. He frowned, chewing his lip and worrying it between his teeth as he opened up the door and took a step back. Lyndon gave him a sharp look and folded his arms.

"Did you read that book I gave you?"

"Good morning to you too," Javier gestured inside, "May I get you a drink? Would you like to come in?"

"No. Did you read that book I gave you?"

"Not yet," Javier sighed and pushed his hair out of his eyes, "do you want it back?"

"No. Just make sure that you read it before the rest of the town turn on you and your sister for housing that man. Is he still there?"

Javier nodded and Lyndon shuddered. "He's not good Javier. There's a storm brewing and he's to do with it, I know he is."

"Yes, thanks," Javier sighed, "would you excuse me? I've got patients to tend to."

"Purple, Javi. Purple magic and snakes don't mean good. He never used it but I bet it's dangerous, evil power. All the powers are evil really. Even yours and Laura's."

Javier rolled his eyes and gave a very tired smile before he closed the door firmly. How on earth was healing magic evil? He shook his head and rolled his eyes before he headed out into their little kitchen to make more of their medicines. Although his hands worked, his eyes kept drifting to where Keiji was making notes in a book from his saddle bag and his mind kept drifting to Lyndon's book that he'd left in the hospital. The time dragged on and Javier passed Keiji more tea and food before he gave him a light smile and moved to go.

"I've got a class to teach. Laura is around; just shout to her if you need anything. I'll be back later, alright?"

Keiji nodded and fixed his eyes onto Javier with that same look that seemed to be staring into Javier's soul. Javier gave him one more smile before he turned and all but ran out of his home and into the street.

People normally would have greeted Javier on his way with a smile or a "good afternoon Javi!" but today, there was nothing. People still noticed him and watched him go by, but they didn't greet him. Instead, they watched him with a similar curiosity that Laura had shown when she was watching Keiji. Javier just swallowed and gave them all his trademark smile before he fed the ducks some of his bread like he always did. In the distance, coming over the mountains from the north, dark clouds were starting to gather. Javier chewed his lip as he watched them.

_I guess Lyndon isn't completely crazy and a storm is coming._ Javier half chuckled to himself before he shook his head. His fingertips glowed pale yellow as his magic appeared in the form of a sleeping cat in his arms. His familiar yawned and looked up at him before she curled back up closer to him. She purred, burying her face in his arms and he adjusted her before he set off towards the town hall and makeshift school. Just outside of the hall, however, his familiar hissed quietly into Javier's ear. Javier turned, catching sight of half of the town glaring at his back. They didn't back down when he caught them staring.

"Can I help you?" Javier asked, trying to keep his tone as light as he could, opposing the weight that the stares put on him by them.

"How is he doing?" One of them asked. He didn't need to specify who; Javier already knew exactly who they meant. "Well enough to travel? To leave?"

"Not at the moment," Javier explained, "even with Laura and my healing magic, it's not the quickest healing process."

"Can he walk?" Someone else asked and Javier couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. Sure, only he and Laura knew that he was from somewhere in the east but the others could surely have guessed that he wouldn't be able to return home. With an injury to his thigh like that, he couldn't ride his horse or walk back. Well, he could, but it would take forever.

"Not really without assistance. Why?"

"Tonight, there will be a town meeting. We need to decide what to do with him."

"Laura and I gave him sanctuary--"

"After he is healed, what to do with him." Javier opened his mouth to respond but a hand was held up by one of them. "We will discuss it tonight. If we deem him physically fit enough to go, he will go. If not, he will be allowed to stay with you and Laura until he is physically fit."

Once again Javier opened his mouth to respond but the looks of the others silenced him. Their eyes seemed to say "keep quiet. You may say your piece this evening so don't waste your time saying it now." With a sharp nod, Javier turned and tried to calm himself down as he entered the classroom.

* * *

The sun was nearly fully down when Javier's class ended and the children scampered back to their homes to show their parents that they could summon their familiars successfully. It had made his heart swell with pride to see them smile and he could almost, _almost,_ forget that he was meant to drag Keiji to the town hall to be judged and condemned by the town that night. He didn't stop at the bridge on his way back this time; he ran the whole way from the hall to his home. Laura's face told him that she knew exactly what he was going to say as she just nodded solemnly at him, eyes keeping a steady gaze with his. Both of them nodded. Javier changed Keiji's dressing one more time and gave him more tea with painkillers in it as Laura packed up Keiji's things, along with several vials of their antibacterial and painkilling serums. When the time came, Javier looped his arm around Keiji's waist and helped to support the other as they left the safety of their home and started to make their way to the town hall.

"Your town is pretty nice," Keiji commented as he looked around at the street lit by the lanterns inside each home and the moon, "I think he would like it as well. Maybe when we find him again, I'll bring him here. As long as everyone doesn't try to chase us out again."

"I have a feeling they might," Javier said grimly as they crossed the bridge. The ducks had long since gone to sleep, leaving the river to reflect only the moon that was half covered by the dark clouds. Half the stars were obscured too, leaving the street to be lit mostly by the lanterns instead of by nature like it normally was.

"We can hope," Keiji mumbled more to himself as Laura opened up the door to the town hall for them and Javier helped Keiji in, "pray for me," he half joked as Laura knocked on the main meeting room door.

They were let in and all eyes fixed on them as they helped Keiji into the middle of the three empty seats; Javier sat on the right and Laura the left. The gazes of the councillors and other townspeople were heavy, and Javier shifted uncomfortably in his seat with a light grimace. Keiji looked calm, almost serene, as he met their sharp stares with his own level gaze.

"The townspeople have been called to a meeting to discuss what should be done with .... Your name?"

"Keiji Tanaka."

"Keiji Tanaka when he is in a fit state to travel. Namely, the town councillors and I would like to decide on the following: Is he a threat? If so, how soon will he be in a fit state to leave?"

"Hold on a minute," Laura cut in, eyes narrowing at the board before her, "Javier and I granted him sanctuary in our home. Does that count for nothing anymore? Is it not one of the rules that out very town and home is based upon? Or are we casting that aside for nothing? Are we casting aside an important pillar of our community just because... well, you haven't actually given us a reason why yet.”

Another councillor cleared his throat and stood up, adjusting the papers in his hands with an official looking glare on his face.

"Well, this man, what's his name? Kevin?"

"Keiji."

"Keiji attacked us with his magic and--"

"That is incorrect," Keiji spoke up, voice still level and calm, "If I had attacked you, why wouldn't I have attacked you again now? I'm not here to cause problems. I was here to speak to one member of your community."

"If that is the case, why did you bring out your familiar?"

"Defence. She emerges in defence when she feels I need her the most unless I summon her," Keiji explained and Laura, reaching the end of her tether, stood up with a glare on her face.

"Is this a trial or a council meeting? If it is a trial, Javier and I should have been informed so that a lawyer for Keiji could have been found prior to this."

"It is not a trial Miss Fernandez, please calm yourself. We are merely trying to establish how much of a threat Keiji is to us here."

"He isn't a threat," Javier argued, trying to keep his temper under control as he gestured to Keiji's bandaged thigh, "you saw us having to support him as he came in. He's clearly in pain, and, even with our magic and familiars helping, he is suffering. He can barely move by himself, so he will not be a threat for a while. You have to give him a chance to recover. You have to. It is cruel and unjust to throw a man out when he needs help the most."

The councillors whispered amongst themselves before one of them turned to meet Keiji's eyes again. Another passed him a book before he handed the book across the table to Keiji. In there was a pencil sketch of a snake familiar. Keiji raised an eyebrow at it before he raised his head.

"Is this or is this not similar to your familiar?"

"It is," Keiji answered before he read the text and chuckled, "but you see, my magic is not mind altering. This only mentions those with the snake familiar and the mind-altering power as being the threats. I have only one of those traits."

"How do we know we can trust you?" one of the more cynical ones snapped, cutting in over Keiji. "Your word could be built on lies for all we know."

"Miss Fernandez," another member cut in, "when do you think Keiji will be fit to travel? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month? When?"

"Well," she hummed and chewed her lip, "there's no infection which is good. Means that it should heal faster. I would say one or two weeks?"

"After that time," the councillors cut in, "he should leave. When he is given the clean bill of health by you and your brother, he should go. Return to his home and leave the town."

Javier and Laura exchanged a look when one of the townspeople not crammed into the hall almost fell into it as they threw the doors open. Breathlessly, they stared at Keiji with eyes of thunder.

"Storm. Outside."

Everyone in the hall fell over each other to try and get out. Javier helped Keiji as the townsfolk poured out of the hall and into the street.

It was a sight to behold. The dark clouds that had been gathering in the far north had reached the village, and lightening was striking the ground around the town. Those who could control electricity and their familiars were trying to deflect it, but it was overpowering. Keiji tightened his grip on Javier's arm and turned him so that they were looking eye to eye. Keiji's flashed purple for a brief moment before the light from the lightening was reflected in them.

"We need to leave. Now."

"We?!" Javier looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "What do you mean we? I can't just go! I have duties here. Responsibilities here. I have to--"

"The fate of the entire world could be resting on your shoulders and you're going to tell me that you can't come and help me?" Keiji hissed, temper rising, "Maybe he made a mistake by saying to come and find you, if you're going to act like a coward and hide away in your little town, burying your head in the sand. This, all of this, could be stopped by him. But he is lost. Why will you not come and help me to find him when you are the key to it? He needs you, Javier. We need you. Please. Help us to find him."

The firm look in Keiji's eyes made Javier pause and he nodded at Keiji. Helping the other into the hospital and their home, Laura saw the look in their eyes and started packing them up some food and medicine as Javier readied both his and Keiji's horses. Javier wrapped Keiji up in his cloak before he helped him get up onto his horse's back, trying to ignore the other's wince as his thigh moved and the pain surged through him. Javier took the book that Lyndon had given him and stuffed it into one of his bags that Laura gave to him. She helped to secure his cloak for him before she patted him on the shoulder.

"Good luck," she whispered before she gave him a light kiss on the cheek and pushed him towards the door. "I'll hold down the fort here for you until you come back. Send me letters, okay? And make sure you eat properly!"

Javier gave her a smile before he pulled himself up onto his horse next to Keiji's. He checked that the saddle bags were secure one more time before he dug in his heels and their horses went. Laura watched them with a sad smile as they disappeared into the forest together, obscured by the trees and the darkness of the storm clouds.

"Are you feeling alright?" Javier asked quietly to Keiji, who just nodded and tightened his hold on the reigns of his horse. "Your thigh, does it hurt a lot?"

"I will live," Keiji responded, pulling his cloak up to hide his head as Javier did the same, "for now, we just need to keep moving."

"Where are we going first?" Javier asked, curiosity getting the better of him as their horses weaved through the trail of the forest, picking through the fallen branches and walking across the floor decorated with pine needles. Keiji half smiled as he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the folded-up letter left by the one who had gone missing.

"The last place he is reported to have been seen is the frozen north, but we can't get there yet. It's too long a journey and neither of us is prepared enough for it. So, we're to go to the temple where we think he may be."

"The temple?" Javier asked, tilting his head to the side, "Which one? There are lots, aren't there?"

"Yes," Keiji nodded, quietening down for a second to listen more carefully to what he heard. Satisfied that it was just the wind, he spoke up again, "but there is one that was more special to him. He visited it all the time when I saw him. Prayed there a lot together before he went off to study and left his hometown. You ever heard of the Mutsu-Kokubunji temple Javier?"

Javier shook his head and Keiji raised an eyebrow at him. "Alright, you ever heard of the Yakushido temple then? That's what it's also known as."

"I've never heard of that one either," Javier responded with half a shrug, "are they nice?"

"It's the same temple," Keiji explained with half a chuckle, "but yes, it's beautiful. There's so much green around it that I know he loves to surround himself with. He hides in the green space and offers up his prayers. Sometimes he will stay in there for hours at a time, just meditating or working with his magic and his familiar."

"What's his familiar?" Javier asked as curiosity got the better of him.

"A swan," Keiji smiled mostly to himself, "if you saw him, you would know that it of course would be a swan. It couldn't be anything else."

"You keep saying he," Javier said and he chewed on his lip in confusion, "but he... Who do you mean?"

Keiji looked across from him and the moonlight only caught his eyes under his hood, making them sparkle. Javier found he was unable to look away as Keiji's eyes once again seemed to bore into his soul."

"Who is he?" he repeated before he chuckled. "He, Javier, is Yuzuru Hanyu."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The journey to the Mutsu-Kokubunji Temple took several days of journeying for as many hours of the day as they could without exhausting their horses and setting up camp or staying in inns when the darkness started to set in. They ate their supplies and bought more as they journeyed through other towns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, welcome to Chapter 3! So! There is a lil bit more action here (hehehehehe) and we're introduced to some more characters. Won't say much more otherwise I'll spoil it for you. Big big thank you to emilia_kaisa, and I really hope you all enjoy this xxx

The journey to the Mutsu-Kokubunji Temple took several days of journeying for as many hours of the day as they could without exhausting their horses and setting up camp or staying in inns when the darkness started to set in. They ate their supplies and bought more as they journeyed through other towns. The journey, while long, was very uneventful for them. Javier kept a close eye on Keiji's wound which, through a combination of his magic and the healing potions that he and Laura had made, healed it much faster than it would have healed naturally and left a clean scar. No infection took over the site which meant that, by the sixth day of their journey, Keiji was fine to walk alongside his horse for some of the journey unaided. They spent most of the time in a comfortable silence that was broken only by the branches breaking underneath their horses' hooves, by the birds twittering to each other in the trees, by the rustle of the leaves in the wind, and by the gentle sounds of the babbling brook that ran alongside them towards the east. After days of travelling, Javier gasped when they emerged from the forest.

Before the temple was a clean stone path. Outside it were a few smaller buildings of a similar design to the temple and the two men dismounted their horses. Some of the monks who tended to the temple and prayed there most of the time offered to take their horses and, as they tended to them, they invited the two men in. They fed them and gave them water, still in silence, before they gestured to them to go into the main temple itself. The pair offered their prayers before the shrine before Keiji gestured towards the door that led to the gardens.

"This temple was the last place that Yuzuru was seen," Keiji explained as he and Javier walked through the masses of flowers that nearly invaded the path that wound through the gardens, "other than the north where he studied. Someone might know something around here, and so it's worth a look. Knowing Yuzuru, he could easily have hidden himself away with the monks for weeks to clear his head."

Javier nodded and chewed his lip as he watched a pair of butterflies dance around each other before they settled on some of the neighbouring flowers in the beds. Keiji watched him for a moment before he patted Javier on the shoulder, an expression of understanding on his face.

"I'm going to talk to the monks. If you'd like to sit down then just follow the path and there's a bench along there. It's surrounded by flowers which is really nice if you just want to think. Might be worth offering a prayer there too if you'd like or think it might work? I appreciate you coming with me Javier."

Javi gave him a smile and they bowed their heads to each other before Keiji retreated and went back into the temple. Javier watched the butterflies again, smiling slightly as he watched the blue one settle on another white flower while the red one circled him a couple of times before it disappeared into the flowers. With a soft sigh, he continued along the path that Keiji had suggested to him. Down the winding path lined with flowers that looked like something from a story book, Javier found a clear pond with some koi in it as well as a little wooden bench with iron decorations and handles that was settled beside it.

Javier set himself down and looked up at the clear blue sky above him as he finally relaxed. A pair of swallows chased each other, weaving around and twittering without a care in the world. The clouds above him moved in the gentle breeze and Javier chuckled to himself when he caught that he was noting their shapes like he used to do when he and Laura would lie back on the grass outside their home for hours on end. Above him passed a goat, a book, a spoon, a bucket, and a weird butterfly, moved on by the same gentle breeze that ruffled his soft brown curls.

"Who are you," he whispered to himself as he kept staring at the sky as if the vast blueness could answer him. "Yuzuru, who are you? I have never met you, but yet your name means something in my heart. Why does it mean something? Who are you Yuzuru?"

No one answered him, not that he expected them to, and he chuckled to himself. The sun warmed his skin and the days of travelling finally caught up with him. Settled on the bench, Javier closed his eyes and just let himself relax, trying to expel all of the exhaustion that he'd accumulated. All too soon he fell asleep with the wind and the animals around him as his only company.

* * *

Back by the temple, Keiji approached the monks and gave a small smile. Bowing to them, he signed to them his question as most were on a vow of silence.

_When did you last see Hanyu Yuzuru?_

_At least a month ago. Let me check the book, Tanaka Keiji. You and your guest will need to sign it too._

Keiji nodded and gave them his polite smile as the man rushed off to fetch the guest book. Most temples had them as it helped them to keep track of where people were, like Yuzuru, and who the regular people at each temple were. In times gone by, it used to be the easiest way for people to know where to find each other: by tracking the dates that they went to the temples and so working out which days they would be likely to next be at the temple. The monk set down the guest book on the desk before Keiji and flipped the pages back for a few days. Keiji scanned each page, shaking his head when he couldn't spot the name he was looking for. After hopelessly turning over page after page after page, Keiji held up a hand and nodded. There, nestled between the other names on the page, were the four kanji characters he was looking for.

羽生結弦.

The date next to it was around six weeks before and Keiji grimaced. Six weeks was ages. Anything could have happened. He could have been anywhere by then. Still, he smiled to the monk and bowed his head again.

_Thank you_

_My pleasure. Is there anything else you need?_

Keiji chewed his lip. _Do you have a spare room we could use for tonight?_

_Yes, but you must not talk. Silence is imperative._

Keiji nodded and gave a light smile to the monk. _I will let him know. Thank you. I appreciate it._

Keiji turned and left the room before he stepped out into the clear afternoon air. It was refreshing and relaxing, feeling the calm that came with a place as constant as an ancient temple like this rather than the constantly changing scenery that came with travelling. Keiji took a deep, calming breath with his eyes closed before he followed the path again to find Javier. When he found the other asleep, he didn't really have it in him to wake him up and so, instead, he sat down next to him and enjoyed the peace and serenity of the garden of the temple.

A huge bolt of green magic flew at them, and Keiji barely had time to pull Javier out of the way of it before it would have hit him. Javier was definitely awake when a second one was aimed at them, hitting the pond and sending water flying. Keiji and Javier's familiar's both emerged; the yellow cat and purple snake acted of their own accord as their human counterparts disappeared among the flowers. Two men in cloaks crashed through the trees before they emerged in the clearing, eyes narrowing at the familiars. Both the cat and snake hissed at them before the cat started wrestling with one of the green familiars that took the form of a hawk. Keiji's snake started hissing and snapping at the other familiar in the shape of a lion. With Keiji and Javier's familiars occupied, the two cloaked men disappeared into the flowers in the garden after Keiji and Javier.

"Who are they?" Javier whispered as Keiji pulled him through the flowers, jumping off the main path so they they could lose the others in the vast array of flowers present in the gardens.

"I'm not sure," Keiji whispered as they weaved through the garden, "but it might be better if we split up. Then they won't find us as easily."

Javier nodded and the pair soon parted, running in different directions through the flowers that came well over eight feet tall and camouflaged the pair of them. Javier ran as hard as he could; his lungs were burning and the flowers kept smacking into his face. With panic and confusion fueling him, he kept pushing forwards, forwards, forwards, until he reached the edge of the flowers and came up against the back of some of the buildings of the temple. Green magic was thrown at him and Javier threw up a quick pale yellow shield before him that blocked the green magic and threw it into the flowers. Upon contact with the green magic, they wilted as if exposed to a harsh frost. Javier kept his shield up as one of the cloaked men stalked towards him and his eyes flashed a dangerous green beneath the cloak. Javier's memory seemed to light up; they tugged on something familiar that was buried deep within his mind, tucked away in one of the dark corners. For some reason, the dark pair of eyes from his dreams bubbled to the surface of his mind. The eyes were fixed on him like a hawk on a mouse and Javier's own narrowed.

"Who even are you?"

"You don't remember me Javier? Pity. We used to be so close before he came along--"

"I don't even know who you are."

"You will," the voice was dangerously quiet and another wave of green magic was thrown at him in an attempt to shatter his pale yellow shield. Javier stumbled back from the force of it, falling as his back was pressed against the wall of one of the buildings, "If it wasn't for me, you would never have been allowed near a place as prestigious as there. No one from your tiny little village makes it in this world. You just stay there, rotting together in your collective pathetic ignorance. I offered you a chance to be free, to learn, and you don't even remember me? You will remember Javier."

"How do you know me?" Javier asked, not letting his guard down as he held up the wall of magic, "And who even are you?!"

"Oh Javi Javi Javi, did you really forget me so easily?" the man chuckled to himself before he held out his arm. The glowing green hawk familiar landed there with a squirming yellow mess of claws and teeth wriggling in claws that it dropped on the ground. Javier scooped up his familiar, petting her head lightly before he turned his attention back to the other before him. "Shame. It's not very polite to forget the one man in the world who gave you a chance, took you in, and let you study in the frozen north."

"You've got the wrong man," Javier shook his head firmly, "I've never studied in the frozen north. I've never stayed away from my village until a few weeks ago. I studied away from my village, sure, but I was always home before it got too dark, because I--"

"Because you didn't want to worry your sister," the other man said, tone taunting and teasing in a way that seemed too familiar to Javier to be a coincidence. His heart lurched and his mind raced, trying to drag something, _anything,_ about this man out of his head. "You didn't want to worry her before you left the frozen north. How cute that you still worry about her and she still worries about you."

Javier moved his defensive wall to block the next wave of green that was thrown at him but the force of it pushed his back harder against the side of one of the buildings. He grimaced before he redirected the wall so that the other had to dive out of the way of his own green magic.

"Who. Are. You." Javier repeated, voice getting more on edge and irritated.

The other just laughed and sent his hawk at Javier's familiar. She hissed, fur raising on her back and claws bared as she jumped through Javier's magic shield to slash at the hawk. They rolled around together and she let out squeals and whines as the talons of his hawk slashed at her back. Javier called her back into him and glared at the other with murder in his eyes.

"Tell me your name! Since you know mine, it only seems fair."

"As you wish, Javier Fernandez Lopez. I am Nikolai Morozov."

The name seemed to resonate within Javier and, with swirl of his cape and green magic, he and his hawk vanished into seemingly thin air.

* * *

Morozov appeared across the field next to where the other cloaked man and his lion were in a fierce one to one magical duel with Keiji. Green met purple in explosions of colour as the cloaked man's speed collided with Keiji's precise aim. He wasn't immune to Keiji's main magical ability to confuse, however the force and power behind his attacks was enough to keep him on his toes. When Morozov entered the fray, Keiji's face dropped and he rolled out of the way of Morozov's blast of magic that was thrown at him. His snake struck at Morozov's familiar, striking down the hawk easily before the other's lion jumped at him and scratched at its purple scales. Keiji called his familiar back before it was mauled which gave the other cloaked man enough time to clear his head and throw another wave of green magic at Keiji. It collided with the purple and both dissipated into the air but none of the three fighters were willing to surrender easily. Keiji found himself attacked from both sides and he ended up surrounding himself with a purple wall that was chipped away steadily by the attacks from the two men and one of their familiars. He strengthened it but the price of choosing to strengthen his defence meant that he had to sacrifice his attack for it. He couldn't attack through the shield and so was left to only push more into the wall around him harder and harder to try and keep it standing. The cracks were evident to him and the others, and the lion familiar of the other cloaked man made a point of attacking his weakest points over and over again to bring his defences down.

As Keiji's wall finally collapsed under the pressure of the onslaught of attacks, he closed his eyes and expected to be bombarded with final attacks. Instead, they turned, transfixed by the pale blue swan shaped familiar that put itself firmly between Keiji and them. The two men stared at the swan before their eyes narrowed and the lion dived for its elegant neck, snapping in irritation as it fluttered elegantly but tauntingly out of its reach. The swan led the familiar away before it soared up high in the sky, somehow standing out from the blue of the sky.

Javier, from across the garden, was also transfixed by how pure and beautiful it was. Once again, like everything else he had encountered, Javier found it hauntingly familiar in a way that was so frustrating to him. It dived down landing before him and studying him and his familiar. Javier couldn't help himself; he reached out and touched the pale blue magic with his fingertips. It felt so comforting and familiar and warm. He gasped when he touched it, remembering once again the dark eyes illuminated by the same blue that had haunted his dreams for years. The swan lowered its head to him before it took to the skies again, pursued by the two cloaked men. With them preoccupied with chasing it, Keiji stumbled over to Javier and embraced him in a tight hug.

"Are you alright? No visible injuries?"

"I'm fine I'm fine. And you? How's your thigh?"

Keiji waved him away and pulled him towards the stable that their horses were temporarily being housed in.

"How I am doesn't matter. I am fine. But we need to get out of here now. Take the opportunity given to us while we still can. We'll find an inn somewhere on the journey."

Javier nodded, swinging himself up onto the back of his horse as Keiji did the same. Keiji signed their thanks to the monks who promised to write them down in the book and, with that, they rode off into the forest that they hadn't come from. Heading north east instead of east this time, Keiji looked much more focused and determined than he had before.

"What was that?" Javier dared to ask when they had ridden far enough from the temple for him to feel safer. "Those men, that swan, what happened?"

"Some men are after us clearly." Keiji grimaced. "They're after us because they either hope that we will lead them to Yuzuru or they aim to kill us before we can reach him.

"And that swan?"

Keiji gave him a weak smile as they kept pushing forward. "That swan was someone's familiar. Someone who clearly wants to protect us from them. I don't know who those men were but I would like to thank whoever sent their familiar to protect us."

"Me too," Javier nodded as he rubbed his forehead.

As the day drew on, their rode in silence. Together they stopped to let their horses drink from the brook that still acted as a constant on their journey. When they reached the next town and led their horses to the stable at the inn, Javier glanced over at Keiji.

"Where even are we headed?"

"Yuzuru's home. It's the next place I can think to go where we might find him. And there is someone there who might also have an idea as to where he is."

Javier nodded but his mind was still swirling. He couldn't get that swan and the pale blue glow of it out of his head. That night, as his head hit the pillow, he expected to have that same dream.

_Flashes of blue and green light clashed against each other, exploding into the air in a flurry of sparks from the magic energy. Soft but firm hands pulled at his shoulders, pulling him out of the way of a bolt of the green magic before he was encased in a spherical shield of blue magic and a pair of near black eyes fixed on his, illuminated only by the blue light._

_"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," a voice, soft and gentle and oh so familiar whispered. One of those soft hands came to rest on his forehead and his sight grew fuzzier and fuzzier. "I will never forget you."_

_All he could see before his vision faded completely was that pair of near black eyes lit with the pale blue light from the magic._


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The path through the forest after the temple that led towards the east was a much more twisted one than the path leading from Javier's home to the temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. I hope you all enjoy this chapter; stay safe xx

The path through the forest after the temple that led towards the east was a much more twisted one than the path leading from Javier's home to the temple. Travelling in silence together wasn't as comfortable as it had been before; Keiji's temper was getting to boiling point at the smallest things. Being on the move constantly, they couldn't bring anything more than simple foods with them and, after what happened in the gardens of the temple, they didn't want to stay in one place for too long. They would travel as much as possible, using the dappled moonlight through the forest and would go as far as they could with their horses each day before they would sleep. The exhaustion and lack of good food didn't help them, but Keiji's closed and short answers to questions were grating on Javier.

"Where are we going?"

"I told you. Yuzuru's home."

"I know that," Javier said with half a sigh as he rolled his eyes, "and I know that we're heading east and have been for the past few weeks, but I meant where specifically are we going? What is the name of the place? The village, the town, anything to help identify it?"

"It's called Sendai," Keiji responded before he grimaced as his horse went over a rough section of the ground and jostled him, "why does this injury still hurt?"

"It will. Even with the fast healing it will still hurt a little. I don't have many of the anaesthetic potions left but if it hurts that badly you can use one?"

"Thank you," Keiji gave him the first smile in weeks as they both slipped off their horses in the middle of the day and walked alongside them for a while to give them time to rest a bit more.

The trees around them started to thin out, going from thick and dense pine trees that were closely packed and blocked out larger amounts of the light to the oak trees that were a little further apart with longer branches and wider leaves that cast green light in the daytime on the ground before their horses on the path. Through the gaps in the trees, Javier let out a small gasp and his eyes widened when he caught sight of one of the buildings.

The town on the other side of the treeline looked so familiar and small like his own hometown was, and a little sharp shoot of pain went through his heart when he realised how far away from everything he knew and Laura he was. He swallowed down the homesickness and carried on after Keiji as they walked together alongside their horses through the town. Vendors greeted Keiji like an old friend and, unlike the people in Javier's home, everyone was so much more open to outsiders in this village. They offered him places to stay, food, offered to take care of his horse for him, and the entrance felt so alive and busy. Keiji led him easily through the people and they navigated through the bustling town centre to get to the other side, the quieter side. Nestled in the base of the mountains that protected the village from one side, there was a couple of smaller houses that had larger gardens around them. Keiji led Javier towards one and, instead of going to the front door like Javier was ready to, Keiji instead led the pair of them around the back with their horses.

Sitting in the garden with her long dark hair swirling around her shoulders in the wind, a young lady was meditating beside a koi pond. Her deep purple kimono sleeves moved in the wind and her eyebrows were furrowed a little in deep thought. Her cheeks had a rosy glow to them and her whole form seemed to have a red tinge to it that rippled in the breeze like flames dancing in them. Her familiar, a glowing red bunny, was nestled on her lap, curled up with its head on its paws. As Javier and Keiji approached, the young lady opened her eyes and gave Keiji a very small smile.

"Keiji," she stood and threw her arms around him as she pulled him into a tight hug. She hid her face in the crook of his neck and Javier found himself looking away to give their intimate looking moment some privacy. Keiji let go of the reigns of his horse to hold her shoulders before she pulled back. The smile vanished and she looked at Javier with poorly hidden concern on her. "Where's Yuzuru?"

"He's not come back?" Keiji asked and a matching expression came over both of them.

"I thought you said he'd be at the temple."

"He wasn't," Keiji grimaced and rubbed at his forehead with a groan. "Not here, not with your grandparents, not at the temple, where on earth is he?"

"I was hoping you could help to answer that question," her tone was light but her eyes were heavy with the concern that she tried to keep out of it. She glanced past Keiji to where Javier was, tilting her head at him as she looked him up and down, "Who is this?"

"Oh, of course, sorry, introductions." Keiji stepped back and allowed Javier and her to approach each other. "Saya, this is Javier Fernandez. Javier, this is Saya Hanyu. She's Yuzuru's sister."

Javier bowed his head to her and, when he stood up straight, he let out a gasp.

_Her eyes_

Her eyes were as dark as the ones in his dream and looked so incredibly similar to them that, if Javier hadn't seen her familiar glow red, he would have believed that she was the one from his dreams. The voice in his dreams was also distinctive and masculine, and it certainly didn't sound like hers, but the eyes were so similar that it made Javier's insides twist.

"Nice to meet you," he managed to get out and Saya raised an eyebrow at him.

"Nice to meet you too," she set off across the garden and, as Keiji followed after her, Javier took that as an invitation to go in as well with his horse, "You can leave them in the stables. There is space upstairs if you'd like to stay and rest, and you can wash your clothes here if you would like. We can make food for you if you'd like that as well. Stay as long as you need, alright?"

Javier nodded and took her invitation to rest. He all but fell onto one of the spare beds and, after shrugging out of his rough shirt and tunic, he snuggled under the soft blanket and fell asleep almost immediately as the exhaustion of the journey and everything that had changed in the past few months took their toll on him.

* * *

Downstairs, Keiji sat with Saya by the table and she folded her legs underneath herself, sipping at a cup of green tea. Her eyes were fixed on Keiji, however she didn't rush any of her movements.

"Why did you bring him here?" She asked finally and Keiji let out a sigh. "What does he have to do with Yuzuru?"

Keiji reached into the breast pocket of his jacket and unfolded the letter. He passed it to Saya and picked up his own cup of tea, waiting and stewing in anxiousness as she read it through.

_To whom it may concern._

_If I were to go missing and never come home in three months, something will have gone wrong with my studies. If nothing is done, I fear I may never come home and the world as we know it could be at stake. If I am not home and you cannot find me in any of my normal places, I beg of you this:_

_Find Javier Fernandez. I would know him as soon as I saw him but obviously you cannot. He is a little taller than me, has soft golden-brown curls, and eyes like that of a doe. His magic is yellow and soothing. He can heal and his magic will take the form of a cat if he allows it to act freely. He smells of cinnamon and sandalwood, and he has a tiny crescent shaped scar on his palm from where he slipped cutting up herbs to produced medical ointments. His village is to the west of mine and to the west of the temple, but I do not remember the name. You must find him. We're friends. He will be imperative to finding me._

_He will be confused and will deny ever knowing me. Whatever you do, you must get him to go with you. I will be able to find you and come home again if you find him but, without him, I and the world will fall._

_I hope that I will be able to see you again soon, but, if the situation is as described above, it is too dangerous right now._

_Your Yuzuru_

Saya folded the letter and handed it back to Keiji as shadows fell across her face like the weight of her the world fell onto her shoulders. Keiji rubbed her shoulder with a gentle hand as she leaned her head on her hand.

"So this man is pivotal to finding Yuzuru?"

"Apparently so," Keiji glanced up tot he ceiling above them where he assumed that Javier was resting and sleeping, "but I still don't really know how he's going to do that. He doesn't seem to know a thing about Yuzuru. Called Yuzuri the other day actually, so how can he help us find him?"

Saya giggled at that, face lightening at Keiji's poor attempt of a joke. "I can't tell if you're lying or being serious," she teased before she leaned back in her chair and shrugged, "but it's Yuzuru. He would never tell us anything simply because it's not his style. He's an enigma wrapped in a riddle wrapped up in another language wrapped in a mystery, cause that's how he likes to be."

"I thought you were the one with the best chance of decoding him?"

"Oh, I used to be," Saya stood up and washed up their teacups, "when we were younger, we could communicate without ever opening our mouths. But now? Ever since he went to study he's impossible for me to understand."

"So what are you thinking?"

Saya glanced up above her and Keiji again before she met his eyes. "Yuzuru wanted him here for a reason I suppose. So we'll look after him and keep him here until we can find out that reason."

Keiji chuckled at that and she raised an eyebrow in question. "You're the smart one clearly. Or the straight forward one at least."

"What does that make him?"

"The dumbass."

Saya laughed, a proper laugh that came from her stomach, and she shook her head at Keiji. "Keiji Tanaka you're bad sometimes."

"But you love me, right?"

"Only because you and Yuzuru are basically brothers," she rolled her eyes at him before she glanced outside. "It's getting late. I'll make you some food for dinner. Do you mind waking up Javier for me?"

"Of course I don't mind. Your parents--?"

"They'll join us for dinner."

* * *

Javier was still as exhausted as he had been before his nap and, after dressing in the comfortable grey kimono that Keiji had found for him to wear while his other clothes were being washed, he found himself settled by the table in the Hanyu family's dining room between Keiji and Saya. He ate mostly in silence as the conversation jumped around over his head, all focused around Yuzuru or the village: neither of which he really had any idea about. He focused instead on eating the delicious filling meal of fish, rice, soup, and vegetables cooked in such a way that made them almost dance on Javier's tongue. Having come from a town with a river running through the centre of it, fish was always one of his favourite foods to have for dinner. He offered to wash up for the family but was ushered to relax as he was their guest after all. His nap had messed up his sleep schedule a little and so Javier excused himself to go out into their garden.

The moonlight from the cloudless sky lit up the lines of white stones that outlined the winding path through the family's garden. The flowerbeds were kept neat and tidy, and the stones that made the path moving under his feet was the only sound that broke the fragile and peaceful silence of the night. The light breeze ruffled his curls and the edges of his kimono as he sat on the grass beside the pool of water, folding his legs underneath himself. His familiar emerged and nuzzled up on his lap like Saya's familiar had done to her earlier. He sighed, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he let himself relax. He let his mind calm, like the pool next to him when the fish were calm and still. With his mind clear, he then took note of the other sounds around him: the rustling of the leaves of the trees in the light breeze, the movement of the fabric of his clothes, the quiet buzzing of the insects that hovered around the water and fell into the background, the whisper quiet rustling of a wild rabbit through the flowers as it nibbled at them, the hooting of an owl in the far off distance, and he let them wash over him like he would the flowing river or the water of the tub that he used to clean himself up after dinner. His yellow magic glowed from inside his abdomen and warmed him up. His familiar nuzzled against the source and Javier's mind took itself easily to focus on the dream that had been plaguing him. For the first time, Javier got to really think about it conscious.

_Flashes of blue and green light clashed against each other, exploding into the air in a flurry of sparks from the magic energy. Soft but firm hands pulled at his shoulders, pulling him out of the way of a bolt of the green magic before he was encased in a spherical shield of blue magic and a pair of near black eyes fixed on his, illuminated only by the blue light._

_"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," a voice, soft and gentle and oh so familiar whispered. One of those soft hands came to rest on his forehead and his sight grew fuzzier and fuzzier. "I will never forget you."_

_All he could see before his vision faded completely was that pair of near black eyes lit with the pale blue light from the magic._

Flashes of blue and green light: magic of course. The green of the magic was so familiar too, but in a much more hostile way that raised the hair on the back of Javier's neck. The blue magic was softer, more comforting, like a gentle hand coaxing you back to your feet after falling. The soft hands pulling at his shoulders, protecting him, seemed to link two pieces in his mind: the comfort and softness of the blue magic from his dream, and the blue swan that he had seen before. It was a familiar, that was for sure, but whose?

_The same person as the one from your dream._ Javier's mind supplied helpfully and he let himself grow calm again, washing the confusion out of his mind like stains from dirty clothes. He didn't know that. He couldn't assume that. Maybe it was just a coincidence.

Soft hands: potentially feminine? Maybe Javi was stereotyping too much; guys had soft hands too. When they rested against his face, they felt small against his, so probably the person was someone younger than Javier if he had to guess.

Near black eyes lit only by the blue magic: that could mean anything. Someone with eyes that were any colour other than blue, and probably green, would have looked black in that situation. Their eyes could have been any colour: purple, brown, black, red, all of them would have looked black in that situation with the blue light provided by the magic. All Javier could remember was the eyes, so that was pretty much a dead end to him.

_What about the emotions Javi? That might help you?_ The emotions? Well, his eyes were opened wide and, combined with the tone of voice, the person was for sure suffering. They were glassy, glassy with tears that hadn't quite escaped his eyes yet. There was a little fear reflected in them too, poorly hidden behind a mask and the flashes of the magic them. There was also something else in there, something that Javier had only seen in the eyes of his parents all those years ago or in his sister's eyes. It was care, possibly even love, but it was so pure and intense that Javier couldn't forget it.

_People's emotions change all the time you idiot. What was in their eyes once won't be in their eyes forever, and so of course you can't use their emotions to try and find them._

The person's voice when they spoke: it was for sure a male voice and there was a little accent to it that would help Javier to narrow down his options. Still, he couldn't really think of anyone who hit all these features.

"Are you alright Javier?" Javi was lightly shaken out of his mind as Saya sat down next to him, folding her legs underneath herself, "Is there something on your mind you would like to talk about?"

"It's alright," Javier said with the gentle smile that he would give to patients in the hospital to reassure them, "it's nothing. How are you doing? I understand that it's your brother who we're looking for."

"We're coping," Saya sighed and pushed her hair out of her eyes, "Yuzuru's a little mysterious at time, you know. Hides himself away when he's studying and we have to poke him to get him to come out."

"Has he ever done this before?" Javier asked, pulling his knees up and stroking the back of his familiar's head as she purred on his lap. "Disappear I mean."

"Oh, a couple of times," she chuckled but there was little humour in it. Her own familiar nosed around at the grass next to her and she stroked his fur absently, "but never for this long. He's my baby brother so..."

"Of course. I understand. I promise you that Keiji and I will do our absolute best to find him for you."

She gave him a weak smile before she gestured to the pool next to them. "Yuzuru always said it was healing. If he couldn't remember something he'd swim in the pool for a bit and said all would be well. Or something. He's very dramatic sometimes. I wouldn't recommend swimming now thought. You should rest first.”

Javier nodded and Saya let out a small gasp. Reaching into her pocket, she handed Javier a little wooden box. He opened it up and saw a gold chain with a simple ring made of gold with a single sapphire embedded in the metal looped onto the chain.

“Yuzuru left a message that you were to have this. He said that only in times of great peril should you ever put the ring on your finger, but wear it on the chain so that it is always with you.”

Javier nodded and watched her go back into the house as he clasped the chain around his neck. He sat there for a moment more, staring at the water that reflected the moon back to the stars.

_Can't hurt, can it? Swimming in their pool_


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning, after being woken up by Saya and given a light breakfast, Javier took a towel with him as he settled down in the garden beside the pool. His familiar settled amongst the grass nearby to it, curling up on his folded towel and clothes as he slipped into the pool.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, welcome to the next chapter. A certain someone in the comments *might* have guessed some of what happens in this chapter but I really hope you all enjoy it anyway. Thank you so much for reading this and I hope you all enjoy it xxx

The next morning, after being woken up by Saya and given a light breakfast, Javier took a towel with him as he settled down in the garden beside the pool. His familiar settled amongst the grass nearby to it, curling up on his folded towel and clothes as he slipped into the pool. The cool water seemed to soothe him as he went up to his shoulders. The pool, although submerged in the middle of their garden, had stones lining the edges and the bottom that were cool and smooth against Javier's skin. He sighed, leaning against the edge and closing his eyes as he let the water unwind all the knots in his back and the tension in his muscles. His familiar let out a comforting purr as she nuzzled her paws, and the wind ran through his curls. The cool water was inviting after the weeks of travelling and Javier soon found his mind going clearer.

_Saya gave Javier a weak smile before she gestured to the pool next to them. "Yuzuru always said it was healing. If he couldn't remember something he'd swim in the pool for a bit and said all would be well."_

"Whoever Yuzuru is, he's right," Javier whispered to himself as he felt everything unwinding. He let his mind wander, looking on like a third person watching his own thoughts.

_Javier paced through the library, scouring the shelves jammed full of books. His arms were full of them and he reached up, trying to get another one out off the shelf. He nearly fell over but gentle hands pushed him back so he was balanced and someone else reached the book down for him. They placed the book on the tower in his arms and Javier poked his head around the tower._

_There, looking at him, was a Japanese man slightly shorter than him. He too had books in his arms but fewer than Javier did. His black hair was pushed out of his eyes, his near black eyes, his skin looked soft and pale, his jawline was sharp and well defined, and his lips were a delicate pale pink with a well defined cupid's bow. His grey kimono was held shut by a plain back obi that wrapped around his narrow waist and he had on several beaded bracelets as well as definable necklaces._

_"Do you want some help carrying those?" His voice sounded like music to Javier, holding just the hint of an accent on some of the words. "Back to your room?"_

_"Thank you," Javier smiled and the other took several of them off him, "I appreciate it. And thank you for reaching the book down for me."_

_"It's no worry," the other waved him off as they placed their books down ready for them to be checked out. They handed over their studying cards to the man working at the desk and he checked out their books for them. "You've got many books here. Trying to read up on all types of magic?"_

_Javier chuckled and shrugged a little. "Kind of. Back in my little village we don't have any books like this! Our library is so small and doesn't really have many books on studying magic, you know? Someone from my village would never normally come here and be able to study, so I've got to take every chance that I can to learn everything!"_

_The other nodded and they walked together back towards the dormitories associated with the library and the academy together. Javier let him into his room in the building and just gestured wildly to the desk as he dropped down his books in a heap. The other man wrinkled his nose and set down Javier's books neatly on the desk._

_"Your room is a mess," he teased lightly as he straightened up the pile that Javier had just dumped down. "Next time, you can come to my room. Maybe that will inspire you to tidy up your room so you don't have everything thrown across the floor."_

_Javier laughed and lay back on his bed as the other claimed the chair by his desk. He looked over and raised an eyebrow at the other as he studied his face._

_"So, tell me about yourself," Javier said as he rolled to lie on his front, "who are you? What are you studying? Who is your familiar? What's your magic type? Your hometown? I want to know everything!"_

_The other laughed and it made Javier's heart flutter. "Well, my name is Yuzuru. Yuzuru Hanyu. I'm studying to improve my ice and water magic and get more control over them. I want to be the best I can, and my sister is so talented with her magic that I came to study to improve."_

_"How long did it take you to be accepted?"_

_"About a year after I first applied," Yuzuru said with a light shrug, "Saya decided to not accept her application but she encouraged me to go ahead with studying here."_

_"That's cool," Javier smiled and Yuzuru nodded. "Tell me more! I want to know everything."_

_Yuzuru decided to indulge him. "My familiar is a swan. She likes to spread her wings but she might mess up your room even more if I let her loose. I'll show you her sometime. My hometown is one in the far east, between some of the mountains and the water. It's beautiful, and the ocean is so pretty some days." His eyes dimmed a little but he shrugged, "I miss it sometimes."_

_Javier nodded and patted his arm. "Yeah. It is hard to study away from home. I miss the comfort of a small town, even though there's so much amazing knowledge in the library and that I can learn from the tutors. I'm so lucky to be here but I still miss everything. I wonder if Laura is doing well with the hospital and pharmacy without me."_

_Yuzuru nodded and tilted his head at him. "Go on. Your turn to introduce yourself. I want to get to know you too."_

_Javier shrugged but smiled. "I'm Javier Fernandez, my familiar is a little fluffy kitty, I have magic focused around healing, and I'm from the smallest little village in the world that is to the west."_

_"Who is your tutor?"_

_"Nikolai Morozov? I hope he's nice. He sounded nice when he came to the village and offered me to come to the Academy. I never expected that I would ever be able to get here! Who is your tutor?"_

_Yuzuru gave a little smile and rubbed the back of his neck. "Nanami Abe..."_

_Javier's jaw dropped and he gaped at Yuzuru. "Nanami Abe? THE Nanami Abe? Woah, you must be talented if she's taking you on!"_

_Yuzuru blushed pale pink and Javier's heart fluttered once more. "I don't think I'm talented. I'm here to work. I'm here to improve. If I was good to start with, why would I be here?"_

_Javier nodded, chewing his lip with a little smile. "Makes sense, but I bet you're actually amazing."_

_Yuzuru and Javier exchanged conversation and pleasantries for hours before Javier's stomach growled, making both laugh. They spent the time together in the Academy cafeteria still getting to know more about the other. Well into the night, they stayed talking to each other until the bell rang for their curfew warning and both separated to go to their own rooms._

* * *

_"Hey," Javier sat down on the grass next to where Yuzuru was lying on his back, looking up at the clouds, "you alright? Haven't seen you for a few days."_

_"I'm good," Yuzuru sighed as he watched the sky. Against the pale blue of the sky his familiar was almost invisible to anyone who wasn't really looking for her, "I'm alright. Just hit a rough few days in practice."_

_"Anything I can help you with?"_

_Yuzuru just shrugged. "Lie down with me," he mumbled. Javier's familiar emerged and curled up on his stomach as they both lay down together, looking up at Yuzuru's familiar._

_The spring was there. The flowers around the grass were starting to bud and blossom. The blossom from the trees fluttered around them in the light spring breeze, leaving delicate petals across the Academy garden that got caught in Yuzuru's hair. The pale pink stood out against the black and, in the spring sunshine, his eyes looked like a softer brown than their normal near black. Javier wanted to reach out and brush his hair out of his eyes and possibly kiss him as he watched the other. His eyes looked wider and softer, so much less guarded now than he normally was, and his familiar then flew down and settled on the grass next to him. She lowered her head and Yuzuru reached up a hand to stroke the back of her feathered head as he and Javier lay in a comfortable silence._

_"Mr Plushenko asked me to join his elite team," Yuzuru said finally, voice soft and unsure as he spoke, and Javier's jaw once again dropped in amazement._

_"What?!" Javier sat up, unable to properly contain his excitement for his friend, "Yuzuru! That's amazing! You're amazing! To be on Plushenko's elite team! That's like, the dream of so many people and so many magic wielders! And you could get to live it! I'm so proud of you and so excited for you!"_

_Yuzuru chewed his lip and Javier's face fell when he saw Yuzuru wasn't smiling and was a little pale. "Yeah," he whispered, "sounds amazing. Anyone else would take it without hesitation."_

_"You don't want to take it?" Javier asked, tilting his head at him, "Is there something wrong with it you think?"_

_"Well, if I join Plushenko's elite team then I won't be able to control my life until he decides that he doesn't want me anymore. He will dictate my life, he will dictate how I use my magic, and he will dictate where I go. I'll have to ask him if I want to go home, if I want to see my sister. She and my family are so important to me that I can't give up seeing them, even if this is the chance of a lifetime. And I know they wouldn't want me to let them 'hold me back' but I love them so much."_

_Javier nodded and offered him a hand. Yuzuru took it without hesitation, causing Javier's heart to skip a beat. His hand was soft unlike Javier's calloused hands from years of grinding up herbs and plants to make the ointments, and it felt so small and delicate in his hands. It was surprisingly warm and Javier stroked his thumb over the back of it as his mind was far away._

_"I chose to leave my family to study here," Yuzuru carried on, squeezing Javier's hand, "but I know I'll be able to go and see them again. I know that I won't be at the Academy forever. It's temporary and I'll be able to go home during the breaks and when I'm done. I just can't lose my family and my friends and my whole freedom just to be in his elite team. I don't know. Maybe I'm being ungrateful?"_

_"I don't think you're being ungrateful," Javier looked over at him and met his eyes. He became hyper aware of how close their faces were; their noses were nearly brushing each others. "I think you're making a decision that's right for you. He's asking you to change your life entirely and you need to decide if it is really good for you or not. If you decide it isn't, that's not you being ungrateful. That's you deciding on what is important to you."_

_Yuzuru nodded and squeezed Javier's hand again. "Thank you Javi," he whispered, "thank you."_

* * *

_"Again," Morozov chided him, "do it again! You have healing magic as your primary magic but you need to hone it into something much more useful if you want to be able to fight or defend yourself. And you should try to change your familiar if you can."_

_Javier groaned under his breath but nodded and lowered his head. He tried to get his mind to go blank but he just couldn't. He couldn't change his magic, no matter how much he focused on replicating the other's magic. The swirl of green was almost hypnotising as he stared at it too long, and Morozov smacked him on the back of his head with a book._

_"Focus Javier! You'll never learn anything if you just read and get distracted in all our practical sessions. Again! pay attention and try to replicate my magic. Put away your familiar if you need so that you can really focus."_

_After hours of being hounded by Morozov, Javier was finally allowed to go. No progress had been made. None. He was no closer to manipulating his healing magic into a weapon form; it was definitely good for defence but Morozov couldn't care less about defence. Javier groaned and rubbed the back of his head, intending to just go and fall into his bed, when a familiar pair of arms wrapped around his waist._

_"How are you? You look tired. Want to go get some food together?" Yuzuru asked, looking up at the other from where he was cuddling his waist._

_Javier stroked his hair lightly and nodded, looping his arm around Yuzuru's slim waist before he patted it and gave him a smile. "Sounds good Yuzuru. Food right now sounds amazing."_

_"Rough day of training?" Yuzuru asked as they collected plates of food from the cafeteria and sat down together at their favourite table in the corner. "Want to talk about it?"_

_Javier groaned dramatically, earning a little chuckle from the other. "My goodness, where to start? I'm just not good at changing myself but healing power can't be made into a weapon like Morozov wants."_

_Yuzuru tilted his head at him, eyes narrowing a little. "Well, why do you have to change? You're amazing as you are. You're talented and caring, and I don't think you really suit aggressive or offensive magic. You have the power to heal rather than hurt, and that's beautiful. You shouldn't change unless you really want to or need to."_

_"What if they throw me out of the Academy if I can't change?" Javier voiced his insecurities to Yuzuru for the first time and the other's eyes softened, "What do I do? I've fallen in love with knowledge and learning, and the knowledge in the library at home just isn't enough anymore."_

_Yuzuru squeezed his hand across the table. "I'll teach you. Or find you the best teacher in the world. They say that Brian Orser is out there somewhere and he will take on students if he deems you talented enough."_

_"Like he would want to take on someone like me," Javier scoffed as they stood together and left for their dorms, "No, I should leave before they throw me out."_

_"I think you're the most talented wielder I've ever met," Yuzuru said honestly as he squeezed his hand outside Javier's room, "and, well, if you do leave, please tell me before you go so that I can write to you and we can stay in contact."_

_Javier nodded and, with a small surge of courage, he kissed Yuzuru on the cheek. The other blushed bright pink and, before he had time to respond, Javier dived into his room and shut the door, leaning against it and breathing hard._

* * *

_Rough hands shook Javier awake. Yuzuru's eyes met his and, wordlessly, they both started to pack Javier's bags. With everything haphazardly thrown in and Javier's library books left on his desk, Yuzuru led him out with the other's hand in his. Flashes of green magic were thrown around the dormitories and exhausted students came to see what all the commotion was about. Yuzuru pulled Javier with him, ducking and dodging the green thrown at his head. His familiar surged up out of him and flew in front of Javier, taking the full brunt of one of the blasts of green that would have hit him full in the face. Yuzuru grimaced as his elegant familiar fell to the ground before she disappeared. He pulled the other out of the dormitories where they had a few moments together of clarity and peace._

_"Javi, look at me. Nanami said that she will make sure you get home okay. She said you'll be alright and she'll make sure of it. She said she'll meet us here but I... Javi," his eyes filled with tears and he hugged the other tightly, "I'm sorry. This is all my fault."_

_"Yuzuru, what are you trying to say?" he whispered as he held the other to him. Yuzuru buried his face in Javier's collar and placed a gentle kiss to it._

_"I love you Javi," he whispered, "I love you so much. I just wish it didn't have to come now. I wish I'd realised it sooner."_

_The green magic started to come at them and Yuzuru brought up a wall of blue around them. In the darkness of the night, Yuzuru and Javier had only a moment encased in the shield of Yuzuru's magic. Their eyes locked onto each other and Yuzuru cupped Javier's cheeks._

_"How luck am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," he whispered. He placed a kiss to Javier's lips before his hand came to rest on the other's forehead. "I will never forget you Javi."_

_Javier maintained eye contact with Yuzuru for as long as he could. His mind slipped into a misty mess as Nanami Abe took him into her arms and they vanished in a swirl of pink magic. Yuzuru was left alone, fighting against the flashes of green with his own blue magic. With two against one, Yuzuru was soon restrained by green magic before he fell unconscious into the arms of Morozov and Plushenko._

* * *

Javier gasped, breathing heavily as he tried to understand what had happened. His new memories, his old memories that he had back, they were still muddled a little but he knew where Yuzuru was. Or he now knew what had happened to him. His familiar perked up a little when he scrambled out of the pool and dried himself off before he got dressed. He still felt like he had no control of himself; his mind was miles away, wondering what Morozov and Plushenko had done to Yuzuru. His revelation had given him a renewed sense of hope that warmed his stomach a little as he scooped up his familiar into his arms. Keiji came out of the Hanyu family home and raised an eyebrow at him.

"I know Yuzuru," Javier whispered, holding onto Keiji's arms, "I know him. I remember, Keiji, I remember. I know who he is. We studied at the Academy together. He... Morozov. Plushenko. They got him Keiji."

Keiji's face fell as he understood what Javier meant. Still, he held him upright and helped him towards the house.

"It's alright Javier it's alright. I've got you. You can tell Saya about it; it'll cheer her up. Give her some hope."

"But I don't understand," Javier whispered, "at the temple... the swan familiar... that was him! But if they caught him--... If he's with them, why did he protect us? If he's not with them, how is he out?"

"We'll find out," Keiji promised him, "If he's around then we'll find him soon. He can't stay hidden forever. It's alright. Everything will be fine Javier."

Javier nodded, still feeling like he was going through the motions as Keiji led him back towards the house. Barely meters away from the house, a bolt of green magic hit into it and the whole place erupted into flames.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Javier and Keiji stared at each other, faces illuminated and heated by the flames that danced around the Hanyu family home. With barely a moment of hesitation, both ran inside. Keiji pulled Saya's parents out, supporting the both of them and guiding them past the fallen debris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, here's the next chapter of this. I hope you all enjoy it xx

Javier and Keiji stared at each other, faces illuminated and heated by the flames that danced around the Hanyu family home. With barely a moment of hesitation, both ran inside. Keiji pulled Saya's parents out, supporting the both of them and guiding them past the fallen debris. The fire spread through their house, licking at the paintings on the walls and smothering their furniture. Javier looped an arm around Saya and he guided her out as both of them coughed and spluttered from the smoke. The group of five watched, standing in their garden huddled up together, as the flames swarmed and enveloped their home. Keiji's eyes narrowed as two green glowing dots fell like shooting stars but landed before them, standing in front of the group. His familiar emerged, hissing at them and coiling by his side as Keiji brought up a purple wall and barrier around them. It was bombarded by green magic attacks and Saya joined him, strengthening the purple wall with her own red magic wall. Although her familiar took the shape of a fluffy bunny, now its eyes were narrowed and it was poised, ready to back her up and support her at a moment's notice. Javier's familiar bared her claws and hissed at the bombardment of green magic that chipped away at Keiji's wall.

"Let me put up the wall," Javier insisted, raising his own wall of yellow magic, "because you're better at offensive magic than I am. I can hold this."

Keiji and Saya nodded to each other and, as they both brought down their walls, Keiji threw out his own balls of purple magic as Saya threw out red ones. Theirs collided with the green magic, creating explosions in the air as the colours then dissipated. Javier's magic held a firm yellow wall around the group, protecting them from the onslaught of attacks, but the Hanyu family home was still burning in front of them.

"We need to do something about it!" Keiji shouted over the sounds of the magic colliding. "Or it could spread to the rest of the village!"

Saya dodged out of the way of several bolts of green magic thrown to her and responded with her own red bolts. The green wall before them held fast and a shiver ran down Javier's spike at the cold smirk on Morozov's face. It felt like his eyes were boring into his soul and Javier fought to keep his wall of magic up. His familiar hissed, back arched and claws and teeth bared but Javier willed her to stay by his side and not bounce off into the fight where she might get caught in a hail of green magic.

"I can't hold them forever!"

Keiji swore colourfully under his breath before his familiar launched herself at the green wall. The three gasped as the snake erupted into a shower of sparks, weakening the barrier significantly. Keiji's resolve dropped without his familiar and Saya's bunny ran for the barrier, kicking his feet repeatedly against it to try and exploit the cracks that Keiji's snake had produced. Javier's familiar ran out, slipping through his barrier to join Saya's familiar as the two smaller animals threw themselves at the green barrier. Their familiars being apart from them, although it allowed them to be more versatile in their magic, took a toll on them. When Javier felt himself slipping with the barrier, the call of a bird stole everyone's attention.

Soaring across the sky was the beautiful pale blue swan. Yuzuru's swan. She hissed at the sight of the pair enveloped in green before she disappeared into the house. The flames died down as the swan made from water and ice magic quelled them before she dived for the pair in the green barrier. At her appearance, Morozov and Plushenko grabbed the other's arms and vanished in a swirl of green magic, leaving behind the family and the home that had stopped burning. Saya darted back in, hardly paying attention to the damage as she packed up her things.

"The frozen north," she explained as Javier and Keiji followed her out to the stables. "That's where they are. That's where Yuzuru will be. Or that's where he'll reveal himself to us. He won't... It's complicated. If I know my brother, and I like to think I do, he won't put us further at risk. They're following him and his familiar, and now us. He doesn't want us to get hurt, so he won't show that he's with us until he knows that they're off our trail."

"Finish this where it began," Javier whispered, pulling himself up onto his own horse as Keiji did too. "Do you think we have a chance? To get him back?"

"Yes. Without a shadow of a doubt. You've got that ring?"

Javier showed her where it was still on the chain around his neck and she nodded with a firm look on her face. The three of them set off on horseback as night began to fall, following on the path through the forest that, although it was winding, led north. They tried not to stop but, at times, they were forced to. They didn't want to exhaust themselves or their horses, but the spark of desire burning inside all of them to find Yuzuru encouraged them to keep going. At some nights, Javier would sit up and keep guard when he found the book in his saddle bag, the book that Lyndon had given to him all that time ago. Curiosity and boredom got the better of him and he opened it up.

_Rare magical connections and rare magic types._

Javier raised an eyebrow at the page and couldn't help but laugh a little. Of course this is what Lyndon would give him. He chuckled, opening up the book and flicking through the types of magic it presented.

_Death magic_

_Mind-altering magic_

_Snake familiars_

_Spider familiars_

_Swan familiars_

_Combined abilities, particularly combined elemental abilities._

_Connected abilities_

Javier frowned and flicked through the book to the last section.

_Connected abilities. Two who are destined for each other both emotionally and physically can form an incredibly rare magical link. Once activated, the link can allow the others to feel the other's presence through it along with their emotions, and it has been said that the pair can telepathically communicate down their link. Very rare forms of magic, it is unknown how many links have ever been established and the true extent of the power formed from linking magic. It may be possible that magic wielders who have linked can tap into the other's magical abilities and forms, however this is again unknown. To be able to connect with another magically is a rare and beautiful gift, and, if a wielder is lucky enough to form a link with another, they should push to see what they can do together._

With the dying light of the fire beside him, Javier flicked back through the book to one of the other sections.

_Swan familiar. For an individual to have a swan familiar is rare because of the qualities within the person that causes them to have the swan. Those with a swan familiar have a certain grace and elegance about them that they might not see themselves. They are humble and loyal to those they care about, not hesitating to strike if the situation calls for it. Often stubborn, this is balanced by their desire to please others as well as make both themselves and other people proud of them. Those with swan familiars have tough exteriors but underneath they are sweet, kind, and loving._

"I wonder what Yuzuru is like," Javier said aloud to himself. His memories had returned, but that had been years ago. Rubbing his eyes, he closed the book and slipped it back into his saddle bag, half laughing off everything that he'd read.

* * *

Days later, they emerged from the forest. Without the protection of the trees to trap air, the bitter wind nipped at their exposed skin. Keiji pulled his cloak tighter around himself as Javier shivered, pulling his scarf tighter around himself. Saya held a little ball of fire in her hands and her familiar nuzzled up against her stomach to keep her warmer as they kept trudging north. The snow started to get thicker and the horizon more difficult to see but regardless, the view of the castle rose through the blizzard and loomed in the distance. Saya lit their way with balls of fire circling them, but nothing could stop the dread from building in their stomachs.

"It's huge," Keiji whispered to himself, "so big. Are you sure that we will find Yuzuru in here?"

"Positive," Saya nodded. "Once inside, everything will go insane so be prepared."

They snuck around the back, using Javier's knowledge from his regained memories as to the best way to sneak into the school. They tied up their horses, mixing them in with the others in the school's stables. Javier led them in the back entrance of the now deserted cafeteria, and they slipped down the corridors together.

"Where are we going?" Keiji whispered, voice barely loud enough to dent the fragile silence.

"Yuzuru is hard to contain, right?" Javier glanced over his shoulder, earning nods from the both of them, "then they'd put him in the training rooms."

_"You're useless Javier!" Morozov snapped. "Sometimes I think it would just be easier to throw you out of the window and pick someone new. You have talent, you have ability, so why don't you apply it better? You're a pain sometimes! Or maybe I should just lock you in one of the training rooms? At least there you won't do any damage there!"_

"The training rooms will be where he is," Javier nodded to himself, "Has to be. Rumour was that any student who misbehaved was put in the training rooms as punishment."

They slipped down the corridor, dipping into empty classroom when they had to get out of the way, hiding from the guards who prowled the place. Along the corridors. Down one of the spiral staircases. Past the offices. Down the next set of stairs. Down into the lowest hallway in the school.

"This is depressing," Keiji whispered and Javier nodded, face pale.

The rooms they passed had doors of solid iron and no windows. Javier tried one and flinched back when the metal burnt him, making his head spin a little and his muscles weakened. His familiar emerged and curled on his shoulders to restore his magical core that felt sapped and repressed by the iron. Saya and Keiji encouraged him along the corridor and each room they came to had the same solid doors of iron. The last one had light spilling into it. The last one, the iron door had been blasted off one of its hinges and a pair of iron cuffs were broken and cast on the floor; the chains were still connected to the wall.

"I don't understand," Saya whispered, her familiar nuzzling closer to her on her shoulder, "what's happened?"

The clack of armour against the ground behind them caught her attention and she turned pale at the sight of the small army of guards approaching them. She threw a ball of red magic at them, scattering them with her fire as their ice magic was crushed beneath the wave she threw.

"Find Yuzuru!" She called as she held the guards off.

Keiji and Javier didn't need to be told twice. They scattered down the hallway only to stop when Javier came face to face with Morozov, and Keiji came face to face with Plushenko. They engaged into fierce duels with Javier playing on the defensive, trying to block all the bolts of green magic that Morozov aimed at him and his head, while Keiji played on the offensive, ducking out of the way of the hail of green magic thrown at him. The three ended up pushed back until they were almost fighting back to back. They ended up in a large training room with guards swarming them, fighting through Saya's fire, and Morozov and Plushenko throwing a hail of magic down on them. Saya let her familiar run free across the room and every guard that he touched fell, bursting into flames.

"How interesting you all are," Plushenko purred, words full of venom as his lion familiar circled his feet. "You're so desperate for your precious little Yuzuru." He threw out a hand and the room filled with an eerie green glow. "So find him."

Green smoke filled the room, filling their lungs too, and it choked them all. Keiji fell to his knees, fighting for breath. Javier helped him up, fighting himself, when the smoke disappeared.

There, kneeling at the centre of the room, was a young man with dark hair. His black kimono was secured around him by the grey obi belt around his narrow waist. The pale skin of his hands was exposed and on his wrists were several stone bracelets.

"Yuzuru," Saya breathed and pulled him into a tight hug. "Yuzuru!"

His eyes snapped open and she flinched back, falling over herself as she scrambled away from him. His eyes were glowing green, burning into her soul as they narrowed on her.

"Is this your Yuzuru?" Plushenko teased. "Or is this your Yuzuru?"

Another Yuzuru, identical in every way, stepped through the door. Saya looked between them and his eyes also glowed the unnatural green; they were nothing like the near black that Javier remembered.

"Or maybe this is your Yuzuru?"

More and more fake Yuzuru's spilt into the room, filling each corner of the room and forcing the trio together in the centre. Saya threw a ball of her fire at one of them but he blocked it with ease and pouted at her.

"You'd really hurt your baby brother, Saya?" An overly sweet and sugary voice asked. "Don't be so mean to me! What would Okaasan or Otousan say?"

Saya shook her head at him, eyes wide as she looked between all the different versions of her brother that were presented to her. They turned and faced her, eerie green eyes fixed on her. They all tilted their heads at the same time, and they took a step towards her.

"Saya," their voices cooed, "Saya. Give your baby brother a hug Saya."

"Don't you love us Saya?"

"Cuddle us Saya."

"Saya, come join us."

"Saya."

Their voices crooned to her and Keiji pulled her so that she was between him and Javier. Her eyes jumped between them, getting more and more confused and distressed.

"My sister doesn't love me! My sister doesn't love me! My sister doesn't love me!" They wailed to each other as yet more split into the room. Keiji threw a ball of his own magic at the but they deflected it like it was nothing; it hit the wall and dissipated.

"What is this," Keiji whispered.

"Keiji?" One of them grabbed at his arm, tugging on his sleeve while another one went for a hug. Others swarmed at him, Saya, and Javier, trying to pull them into hugs or bring them closer to them. "Keiji! My childhood best friend tried to hurt me?"

"You're not Yuzuru--"

"My childhood best friend doesn't recognise me?"

"My best friend doesn't have green eyes."

One of the Yuzurus in front of him stopped. They flashed green, then red, then pink, purple, and blue.

"I can be any colour you want Keiji. Just tell me! I'll be whoever you want me to be! I'm your bestest friend in the world, right?"

"Stop it, just stop it! Where is our Yuzuru?"

"I am your Yuzuru."

Javier shoved the Yuzurus trying to cling to him off him. They came back stronger, throwing themselves at him and latching onto his waist to hold him close.

"Javi! My Javi! Oh Javi I missed you!"

"Where did you go Javi?"

"You'll stay with me forever, won't you Javi?"

"Who even are you?" Javier looked between each and every Yuzuru who tried to get close to him. "You're not the Yuzuru I know."

"Are you sure you even know me at all?"

"Didn't you forget me?"

"It's been years Javi."

"You don't even know me anymore."

"Silly Javi, you always did forget, didn't you?"

"Stop!" Javier shoved them off him but more just jumped, trying to get hold of him. "Stop this!"

"Where is my Yuzuru," Saya's voice had dropped and panic filled it instead of the self-confidence and assurance that was normally there, "Where is my baby brother? What have you done to him? What have you done?!"

"Nothing," Plushenko laughed, "He turned down the opportunity. It was all him. All of this that you see was caused by him."

"You're wrong! Yuzuru would never hurt us like this!" Keiji defended and Plushenko raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh really? How well do you really know him? Isn't he just a little mystery to all of you? His own little private bubble. Even you, his sister, do you really know what he's thinking?"

Saya turned red from irritation and her familiar launched himself at Plushenko's face. He threw him off, growling, and his lion picked her bunny up in its mouth, crushing it into a flurry of sparkles. Saya fell back, eyes fluttering and the Yuzuru's swarmed, scooping her up and carrying her over to Plushenko and Morozov. She tried to kick them off, tried to get out of their grip, tried to get away, but they held her firm as Plushenko and Morozov towered over her.

"Yuzuru, what should be done with an insolent older sister?"

The Yuzurus all tilted their heads, before one of the ones next to Plushenko had a cruel smirk spread over his face.

"Nee-san pretended she didn't know me! And she tried to attack me!"

Plushenko patted one of the Yuzurus on the head before he advanced on Saya. To Keiji and Javier's horror, he clasped an iron bracelet around her wrist that elicited a shriek and the light from her magic fizzled out, making her fall unconscious in the middle of the room.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Saya!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone, we're very nearly at the end of this story. There's one more chapter after this that will be uploaded next week. Thank you so much for reading this far, and thank you for all your support. I hope you like this! xx

"Saya!"

Keiji threw one of the false Yuzurus across the room into Plushenko's lion familiar. The lion vanished into green swirls of magic before the Yuzuru burst into thick black smoke that diffused through the room. Lying motionless on the floor with the iron bracelets around her wrists glowing white, Saya was barely breathing. Javier was shoved back, further away from her, by the wave of Yuzurus when he tried to get through them to help her. Channelling every little thing he'd ever learnt under Morozov's guidance, Javier threw out a wave of his healing magic in a more offensive form. Morozov couldn't hold back his laugh as he blocked Javier's offensive attempts.

"Oh Javier Javier Javier," he shook his head and adjusted his tone like he was talking to a badly behaved child, "you never learn, do you? You never could turn your pathetic healing and defensive magic into an offensive weapon, could you?" His hawk circled over his head, letting out little caws that sounded like cruel laughter. "I suppose you were smart enough to know that, as a weak magic user with weak powers, you'd never be able to fight on your own. Weak people often seek out the strong to hide behind. That's why you befriended him, didn't you? Latched onto him like a parasite, getting the reflected glory from little Yuzuru, that was your only chance to have anything to say for yourself. At least after doing that you could say 'he's my friend!' when Yuzuru went on to achieve the world and you were left healing your little villagers."

Javier's anger rose up inside of him as he tried to reshape his healing magic into another offensive form. Morozov threw a ball of green magic at him and Javier couldn't bring his barrier up in time. It snaked over his body, forming coils and loops that roamed over him. It had similar effects to the iron bracelets on Saya; it repressed his magic and stopped him from bringing it up. The difference was that Javier remained conscious where Saya didn't. His familiar, who had been hissing by his feet, had faded and vanished. Plushenko hit Keiji full in the chest with a bolt of green magic which brought the other to his knees. More green magic ensnared him, wrapping him up and holding him down. Plushenko and Morozov smirked at the trio, taking in the scene before them as their familiars paced around their feet and circled above their heads.

"Why are you doing this?" Keiji hissed, grimacing when Plushenko waved a hand at him and the restraints tightened.

"You can't catch the fish without bait," he explained, looking down his nose at him, "and what better bait to bring Yuzuru back to us than his best friend, his sister, and his boyfriend?"

Javier's glare darkened at them and he wrestled his arm out of Morozov's magic.

_She handed Javier a little wooden box. He opened it up and saw a gold chain with a simple ring made of gold with a single sapphire embedded in the metal looped onto the chain._

_“Yuzuru left a message that you were to have this. He said that only in times of great peril should you ever put the ring on your finger, but wear it on the chain so that it is always with you.”_

He pulled the chain off while Plushenko and Morozov were distracted by Saya. Unclasping it, he nearly dropped the ring as he fiddled around, trying to slip it on with only one hand. After much struggling, he slipped it onto his left ring finger.

The room was filled with a bright white light coming from Javier. It felt like electricity or warm honey was running through his veins, making him gasp as everything felt right. His stomach untwisted and the nerves all but melted away from him. His mind cleared, cleared from all the worry and panic brought on by the situation that was then replaced by flashes of warm yellow and cool blues. His familiar emerged again but she was made up of swirls of blue and yellow light, not green but the other two swirling together, this time. The green magic looped around his limbs burst into tiny pieces, like a crystal thrown onto the ground and shattered into thousands of pieces. His eyes opened and, instead of their normal doe-like brown warmth, they were filled with swirls of yellow and blue together that rippled around in there. Keiji's mouth fell open as he watched Javier's familiar shift between her cat form and the all too familiar swan shape.

"No way," he whispered to himself as he watched the scene unfold.

Plushenko's eyes darkened and he threw wave after wave of the green magic at him. Javier, although not in control of himself, unconsciously brought up a wall of magic like he had before. This time, instead of the warm yellow glow that it always was before, it was flowing like water running down the side of it in the different colours of blue and yellow. Morozov growled at the scene before him but he and his hawk could do nothing; their magic and the hawk's more physical attacks towards the familiar bounced off, not hurting her in either form. She went for him, scratching at the hawk with her claws of light and magic. For the first time, Javier's magic combined with the pale blue finally acted as a weapon. Morozov's familiar screeched and all but ran from her as she bared her claws, and they chased each other across the ceiling. Javier's bright white glow then changed, shifting to an alternating yellow and pale blue. His eyes went back to normal but, from the ring, it felt like the energy was coursing through him in pulses. Plushenko's lion dived for him but Javier's cat familiar leapt in front and blocked the creature from attacking her human. When the lion turned to go for Keiji instead, she dug in her claws and, with the extra power given to her from the ring, she pulled him away from where Keiji was still held down by Plushenko's power.

The doors to the hall were thrown open and there, standing with burning eyes and rage all but rolling off him with his pale blue swan beside him, was Yuzuru. He too had a light glow to him but it wasn't just pale blue; it changed between yellow and blue like Javier's. Morozov's jaw dropped and Plushenko's eyes narrowed on him.

"Come crawling back, have you? There's still a place for you in my group if you really want it?"

Plushenko was silenced by a ball of the mixed magic thrown at him, slamming him back across the room so that he hit the wall and folded over in pain, groaning and holding his stomach. Yuzuru picked him up, glaring at him with his burning eyes that could barely contain his rage and temper.

"Get the fuck away from my sister." He hissed. "Get that iron off her right now or I swear to God--"

"You talk big," Plushenko somehow had that cold smirk on his face as he spoke down to Yuzuru despite his situation, "but you're really just a baby, Yuzuru. A baby trying to play with the big boys. You're no one, Yuzuru, no one without us. Join our group and I'll let your sister go."

"You'll let her go," Yuzuru hissed, eyes narrowing on Plushenko with yellow and blue flecks in them as he focused on the other, "You'll let Saya go. You'll let Keiji go. And you will let Javier go."

"Or what?"

Yuzuru threw him down on the ground and threw a wave of the power around the room. The false Yuzurus all vanished the moment that the colours touched them, and they too disappeared into black smoke like the ones did before. The bonds holding Keiji disappeared like the ones holding Javier had, shattering onto the ground like another dropped crystal. With his gaze still pinning Plushenko to the wall, Yuzuru raised a hand and threw Morozov against the other one. He slammed his head against it and slumped forwards with a groan, holding onto himself as he kept still and didn't dare to look at Yuzuru. With both of them at least momentarily immobilised, Yuzuru dashed for the middle of the room and ripped the iron bracelets off his sister, grimacing at the red burns across his hands that came just from touching it, and the deep red burns around her wrists. His eyes softened and his rage subsided as he raised a hand and poured cool water onto the burns, trying to soothe them. Keiji picked himself up and shook Javier lightly by the shoulders, trying to snap him out of his mind.

"You alright?" he whispered when Javier's eyes turned back to their normal warm brown with the occasional flash of the blue and yellow light sending flecks across them. "Javier, are you alright?"

Javier nodded, still too confused to talk, and he just stared at Yuzuru. The man who had stormed in with his rage crackling like electricity had calmed down and was now brushing his sister's eyes out of his eyes as he held her unconscious form close to him. Keiji helped him to kneel down beside them and he didn't dare to look up at Yuzuru as he waved a hand over Saya. Javier mostly had control over his healing magic and she glowed with it. The burns on her wrists were covered and healed with the extra power to the magic given by the connection with Yuzuru's.

"Wish you'd been powerful enough to do that to my thigh injury," Keiji half joked, breaking all the tension and the heavy atmosphere that lingered in the room. "Then I wouldn't have had to choke down those nasty potions and had that smelly ointment slathered all over me."

Javier laughed wetly, head still lowered, when a gentle hand rested on his cheek. The familiarity of it was almost painful and his chin was lifted so that he could meet Yuzuru's eyes.

"Javier. Is it...? Do you remember me?"

Javier nodded and Yuzuru's face crumpled. Tears welled up in his eyes and he couldn't help but let out a smile and laugh through his tears.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "Javi I'm so sorry. I shouldn't... I didn't... I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry that I wiped your memory. I'm so sorry. I just didn't think and there wasn't another way, and--"

"Shh," Javier cut him off and raised his own hand to cup Yuzuru's cheek. Calloused skin met much softer smoother skin, and a light blush crept up his cheeks, "Yuzuru. I found you again. I found you and you're even more than I remembered you were. I found you, Yuzuru, and that's what matters."

Yuzuru nodded and pulled Javier closer to him. Their eyes fluttered shut and Javier almost gasped when soft lips met his own. It felt perfect. Yuzuru tasted sweet and sharp, like a zesty citrus fruit or a sprig of mint in a cool glass of water, and their lips moved against the other's in easy and light tandem. Javier's hands slipped to hold Yuzuru's shoulders as the other ran his through the golden-brown curls. Javier's tongue teased the seam of Yuzuru's lips and he let him in, all but throwing himself into Javier's arms and giving him almost a full-bodied hug. They only parted when they had to breathe and Yuzuru buried his face in the junction of the other's shoulder and neck. He turned, enveloping himself in the other's warm sandalwood and cinnamon scent as Javier's hands found his waist.

"You're back in my arms," he whispered, trying and failing to hide his tears, "Oh my God, Javi," he choked on his sobs, "Javi, you're here. You're real."

"I'm here. I'm real. I-I.... My God, how did I ever forget you Yuzuru? You're literally my other half."

Yuzuru nodded and they finally broke apart so that he could check on Saya. Her eyes fluttered open and Yuzuru pulled her into a tight hug, whispering apologies that were waved off and dismissed, forgiven. Then hugs were exchanged with Keiji along with teasing and laughter with jokes from years of building friendship and trust together bringing light to the room. After parting from Keiji, Yuzuru slipped his hand into Javier's and, with his other arm, he supported Saya and helped her as they left the north, leaving Plushenko and Morozov trapped in the cells like they had left Yuzuru for so long. The four of them made it to the stables and Yuzuru could barely keep in his laughter when his horse bolted for Javier, trying to nuzzle up against his cheek with her nose.

"There's so much I want to ask you," Yuzuru whispered as he dropped back to ride alongside Javier, letting Keiji and Saya go in front, leading them towards home, "So much. Did you get home safely? They didn't get you, did they?"

Javier shook his head and reached out. One hand kept a tight hold of the reigns of his horse and the other held Yuzuru's in his, cradling the other's smaller hand almost protectively. "Nanami must have got me home. I didn't remember then and that's the only bit I don't remember now."

Yuzuru's eyes clouded over and he looked away. "I'm sorry for--"

"I remembered you though," Javier cut off his repeated apologies. "I remembered you. Every night when I dreamt, I could remember your eyes. I remembered your touch. I remembered you holding my cheek and saying how--

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard," Yuzuru met his eyes as another tear escaped and ran down his cheek. "Oh Javi. I missed you. I missed you more than anything."

"What happened to you?" Javier dared to ask. "I mean... Are you okay? Did they do anything? Did they hurt you?"

Yuzuru tugged back the sleeve of his pale blue kimono to show the scarring from the burns brought on by the iron of the cuffs that he'd been held in for years. Javier reached out a hand and stroked at them, fingertips brushing the angry scars that Yuzuru covered up with bracelets and the billowing sleeves.

"I'm so sorry," Javier whispered and Yuzuru shook his head.

"I would rather suffer a thousand years of this than never let you get hurt. Ever. You are much too precious to me Javi."

Javier squeezed his hand and they exchanged a soft smile. With Yuzuru's ice power and a blue glow around the group, the journey through the snow of the frozen north as they headed south, back towards the temple and the Hanyu family home.

"Were you following us? The whole time? I saw your familiar and I recognised her. She's so beautiful and her presence is calming to me."

"I wasn't exactly following you," Yuzuru said with half a smile, "At the temple, I sent my familiar to you. I wasn't too far away but I was far enough to stay out of it, away from Morozov and Plushenko." His eyes clouded over a little and he rubbed the back of his neck and chewed on his lip. "I'm sorry. I tried to bring them away. I hated it. I never wanted to put you all in danger. I love all three of you and you mean the world to me. I'm sorry. I basically led you into danger and--"

"What is life without a little danger or a little adventure?" Javier half joked. "And Yuzu, can I call you Yuzu?"

"You can," he chuckled, blush rising to his cheeks.

"Yuzu, I would give my life to save you. I would give my life to protect you. I love you so much, Yuzu. I really really do."

Yuzuru smiled at him with shy eyes. The rest of the journey, they kept a tight hold of the other's hand before they came to stop for the night at the temple. The monks gave them rooms and food, and Saya pushed Yuzuru and Javier into a separate room with half a smile.

"Yuzuru," Javier asked, "Back there, back then, how did you know?"

"How did I know?" Yuzuru asked, untying his belt, sitting on the bed with his back to Javier. "How did I know what?"

"How did you know that we have a connection?"

Yuzuru blinked at him and raised an eyebrow with half a smile. The material had slipped off one shoulder, revealing the smooth and unblemished skin that made Javier flush. "I didn't know for sure. I just felt something from the beginning. Something inside of me just knew, and my familiar always moved towards you. That day, that day Nanami-sensei gave me that look where she knows more than I do. She could tell and that's why I left the ring with Saya and the letter for Keiji. It wasn't going to be forever. We weren't going to be separated forever. Now you answer my question: how on earth do you know about connections? That wasn't in any of the books you read from the library."

"Not from our library," Javier said with half a smile as he dug out the book Lyndon had given to him and he flicked it open to the page, "but someone in my village had this tucked away for years and never told me."

Yuzuru opened the book and read through the passage aloud, eyes widening with every word.

_Connected abilities. Two who are destined for each other both emotionally and physically can form an incredibly rare magical link. Once activated, the link can allow the others to feel the other's presence through it along with their emotions, and it has been said that the pair can telepathically communicate down their link. Very rare forms of magic, it is unknown how many links have ever been established and the true extent of the power formed from linking magic. It may be possible that magic wielders who have linked can tap into the other's magical abilities and forms, however this is again unknown. To be able to connect with another magically is a rare and beautiful gift, and, if a wielder is lucky enough to form a link with another, they should push to see what they can do together._

"So we're destined for each other emotionally and physically huh?" Yuzuru raised an eyebrow at Javier and smirked at him, sending Javier's blood running down south.

"We can't have sex here! Not at a temple Yuzuru!" Javier protested and Yuzuru stood, letting his kimono pool on the floor. "Yuzuru!"

"We won't have sex," Yuzuru changed into his sleep clothes and climbed into bed next to Javier.

He bit his lip playfully and slid his hands down from the other's cheeks. He traced his chest before he tugged down Javier's trousers that he'd changed into to sleep. With teasing touches, Yuzuru easily brought Javier to full hardness. The other held his shoulder, gasping as Yuzuru wrapped his hand around the base of Javier's cock and stroked him in long, slow, teasing strokes.

"Yuzuru, please--"

"Please what Javier," his voice was light and playful as he traced his thumb over the slit to tease him before he tugged back the foreskin and then went back to stroking him.

"Yuzuru, please, more!"

"Shh," Yuzuru half laughed as he brought his other hand up to massage and play with his balls.

Javier whined at him and buried his face in the other's shoulder, sucking and licking at it as Yuzuru coaxed an orgasm out of him with just his hand. Javier clung to him and whined, covering his bright red face as Yuzuru looked him dead in the eyes and licked off his hand.

"Yuzuru you're so dirty!"

"Only for you," he lay down beside Javier with the smile of a cat that got the cream, "You taste nice Javi. Just perfect."

"You're so bad. So bad."

"Well, we're meant to connect emotionally also physically." Yuzuru laughed.

"We've got all the time in the world," Javier nodded and stroked Yuzuru's shoulder as he cuddled him closer to him in bed. "All the time in the world to establish our link."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuzuru and Javier arrived back in Javier's village together on horseback, and Yuzuru had to stifle his laughter when he watched Javier get pulled into a bone crushing hug from Laura.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the last chapter of this fic. Thank you so much to everyone who has read it and supported me. I hope you all enjoy it x

Yuzuru and Javier arrived back in Javier's village together on horseback, and Yuzuru had to stifle his laughter when he watched Javier get pulled into a bone crushing hug from Laura. It was Javier's turn to laugh, however, when he realised that Javi had explained everything to his sister and she pulled him in for a hug too, whispering thank yous and holding him tightly. He patted her back, feeling incredibly awkward, before she led the both of them in and gave them tea. Javier held Yuzuru's hand as they sat together at the table in his kitchen.

"You alright?" Javier asked, stroking the back of his hand with his thumb. "I know it's a lot of new to take in, sorry."

"I'm alright," Yuzuru gave him a bright smile and his familiar tucked her head under her wing, sitting on one of the counters next to Javier's napping familiar, "This place, this village, this home, it's very you."

Javier flushed pink and pulled Yuzuru in for a soft and passionate kiss. His hands slid to Yuzuru's waist as the other ran his fingers through Javier's curls, tugging on them lightly as they kissed for as long as they could until their lungs protested.

"You know," Yuzuru teased lightly, "we haven't done that whole becoming one physically yet. Maybe we should get onto it."

"Not in my kitchen Yuzuru!"

Yuzuru wiggled his eyebrows with a cheeky smile. "Then where is your bedroom?"

Laura was not happy with the pair of them when she caught them giggling the next morning but she forgave them and sent them off out. Javier kept his hand in Yuzuru's as he led him over the bridge, showing him the mountains and the river, across to the town hall. Yuzuru found himself pinned under the gaze of the village leaders and the wait for their decision was almost unbearable; it was only made better by Javier's constant presence and his hand holding Yuzuru's for comfort. When they agreed that Yuzuru could live in the village the pair burst into tears of joy.

* * *

"Laura I'm nervous."

Laura rolled her eyes as she dusted off the shoulders of Javier's suit. "What the hell do you mean you're nervous? You love him. He loves you. You're meant to be together. Even your magic proves you're meant to be together. How on earth can you be having any doubts right now?"

"What if this isn't what he wants?"

"Then he's an idiot," Laura said with a light shrug before her teasing vanished and she cupped Javier's cheek more seriously. "I mean it Javi. You have no reason to worry about this. You're made for each other. The way he looks at you is adorable. You two are meant to be together. You found your way back to each other because fate ruled that you're meant to be married and live together and link your magic. You're not going to fight fate, are you?"

"If fate tries to take him from me I might," Javier joked before he gave her a very nervous smile. "How do I look?"

"Acceptable," she teased. "How do you feel? Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Javier answered and she patted his head.

Javier and Laura made their way to the little chapel in the village where they waited for an agonisingly long time. After what felt like millennia to Javier, the doors creaked open and in walked Yuzuru in a soft, pure white kimono with pink and blue flowers in his hands. His parents and sister walked beside him and, when they got to the end, he gave Javier a tight hug. His parents whispered a few words to Javi who paled a little but nodded with a smile. Last but not least, Keiji came in and he took hold of their hands, joining them.

"Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today for my two sappy friends to get married and join their magic properly as fate wants them to. Do any of you have a reason why they should not be married, cause I really hope not at this point. Not after all we went through."

Their families chuckled and Keiji took the gold ring from Saya to give to Yuzuru. He smiled up at Javier and slipped it onto his finger next to the gold ring that he'd left with her for Javier in case of emergencies.

"With this ring, Javi, I promise you. I promise you forever that I will be yours. I promise you that you can use my magic as you need. I promise you that I will love you, hold you, cherish you, and take care of you."

Keiji then took the white gold ring from Laura and gave it to Javier. He slipped it onto Yuzuru's ring finger before he met his eyes and sighed with happiness.

"Now how do I counter that? With this ring, Yuzuru, I promise you the same. Forever yours are both me and my magic. I will love you, hold you, cherish you, and take care of you. I promise."

Keiji then offered Yuzuru a clean blade. Taking care not to drip blood on his snow white kimono, Yuzuru cut his palm. Keiji offered another clean blade to Javier who did the same before they joined hands.

"With the mixing of their blood and the vows given before the fates," Keiji spoke louder, as if to challenge the spirits themselves, "may their magic be linked and their marriage protected and honoured forever. You may now kiss."

Javier leaned in and gave Yuzuru a soft, chaste kiss to the lips before they pulled apart. Laura and Saya wrapped up their brothers' hands and, when they were sure that neither would stain Yuzuru's kimono, Yuzuru all but jumped into Javier's arms and pulled him into a much more passionate kiss. The pair seemed to glow pale blue and yellow as they did; it was the same moment that their powers seemed to fully blend, connect, and link.

* * *

_Dearest Saya,_

_I am glad to hear that you, Okaasan, and Otousan are doing well. I do miss you ever so much these days, but I am so happy with Javi. I've been helping out in the apothecary but I'm not very good at it (it's really Javi and Laura's thing more) so instead I've been helping with the farmers. Water magic is really useful there! I've also been going with Javi and we help to teach children to control their powers. It's so fun! I never expected to want children but now that I've seen their little faces light up when they have a breakthrough, it is probably fair to say I'm addicted to it. I didn't know how satisfying it would be to teach._

_I must come and visit you and Keiji soon. I can't wait to come and stay for the festival. We'll probably come early; Javi doesn't have a kimono to wear so we'll need to get him one and none of the tailors here will make them. I've had to learn to sew to repair my own!_

_I saw a shooting star the other day Saya and it made me think of you. I didn't know what to use it on. For me, everything is perfect as it is right now._

_Looking forwards to seeing you again soon,_

_Your Yuzuru_

_Dearest Saya,_

_I hope that this package finds you well. Javi said that the healing herbs and ointments should help with the stomach pain. Have you asked Okaasan to make you her best soup? The one we used to have when we were little when we got sick? I really hope you feel better soon!_

_The flowers have started to bloom around our house. You would love them! I bet you would be able to name every single one (Javi and I can't). Keiji came to stay and he said, next time he's here, he'll press some for you so that he can bring them home for you. Spring here is as pretty as it is with you._

_Javi told me the stories of the mountains and the river. It's a silly little story that they tell the kids in the village but I think it's really pretty. I'll have to tell you about it when you come to visit, or Javi will have to tell you. I made him tell me it three times last night._

_Sending our love,_

_Your Yuzu and Javi_

_Dearest Saya,_

_Congratulations! Javi and I are so happy to hear about your pregnancy! We can't wait to come and meet our little niece or nephew. Okaasan and Otousan said that we can come and stay in a few months time when you're closer to term. Javi said he'll do his best to try and help you. I'm sorry that this is only a short letter this time but, if we're to see you soon, I'll be able to tell you everything in person._

_See you soon,_

_Your Yuzu and Javi_

_Dearest Saya,_

_Your last letter really made me smile. I loved hearing about Hisashi's antics and I can't wait to come and play with my nephew again. We'll make sure to bring a lot of healing and antiseptic potions with us for you!_

_I apologise that my letter is only brief this time but life is as it always is: simple and perfect with Javi (and, although I could write it, I don't think you'd want to read pages and pages of me gushing about my husband). We've been using our link to show off for the kids. They really love it!_

_Talk to you soon,_

_Your Yuzu and Javi_

_Dearest Saya,_

_We have some news! As soon as it's good for you, please come and visit us. (It's good news, we promise)_

_Your Yuzu and Javi_

"Hey Papa," a young lady with dark brown curls that fell down her back and wide dark eyes that were close to back threw her arms around Javier before she gave Yuzuru a smile. "Hi Tousan. I missed you."

"How are you doing?" Yuzuru asked, as Javier started to make tea.

"I'm good," she gave them a cheeky smile when she held up a leather-bound book. "Found this when I last came to stay and I took it with me. Really interesting to read about your link." She blinked up at the pair of them with that dark pair of eyes that they'd seen for years as she'd grown from a sweet child to a young adult.

Yuzuru smiled and reached for Javier's hand as their little family of three settled down in their living room. "Tell me about it?"

"Well," Yuzuru said with a smile as he placed a gentle kiss to Javier's cheek, "I guess it all starts with the awakening."


End file.
